Welcome, Son Goku!
by ekrolo2
Summary: Son Goku lives a simple life in the wilderness of Mount Paozu. Hunting, eating and sleeping and he's good at all three! Unfortunately for him, it all comes to a weird end and an even weirder beginning to a new, even crazier one.
1. A Simple Life

_**Long, long ago, in a deep dark forest far from civilization, beyond a towering range of...well, you get the idea. It's the kind of place a story like this has to begin...**_

"You're not gettin' away from me!" Goku shouted after the bear running from him through the forest, mad that he even had to do it because of his stupid stomach. Hunting animals straight up didn't bother him much, it gave him a chance to fight for one, but when he was really hungry, Goku liked to take it easy and trick his prey. He had it all planned out too, snatch up some berries, put em in a place the bear was sure to walk past then take him down with a surprise attack.

It was perfect until his belly growled so loudly animals on the other side of the mountain probably heard it. So now he had to chase his next meal, jumping from tree to tree while it kept to ground level. Luckily, Goku had something to take it down real fast. Pulling out Grampa's gift, Goku raised the staff over his head. "Nyoibo! Extend!"

Mid-swing, the pole which was almost as tall as Goku himself got about three times as long, just enough for Goku to bonk the bear over his head. It shouted something fierce, eyes bulging before it started rolling on the ground and finally smashing into a tree. By the time he got over to it, Goku knew it was done for.

"Looks like I won't be goin' hungry tonight!" He chuckled, putting the staff away and walking over to the body. Through the trees, he could see the sun starting to set, turning the green and brown of the forest into a pretty orange. It also meant Goku had to get back home and eat quick, staying outside at night was against the rules, especially if there was a full moon out. With a single heave, Goku raised the bear over his head and ran as fast as he could back up the mountain.

Thankfully, his growling stomach and heavy catch didn't slow him down too much, with the dirt road leading back home as his guide, he reached home in no time flat. Slowing down a bit to smell out of any nasty critter was waiting for him, Goku happily noticed nobody else was there and tossed the bear next to the door. As he always did when he got back home, Goku almost reverently walked up to the table Grampa was waiting for him on in the corner and clapped his hands together, smiling at him.

"Hey, Grampa! I got me some good grub! A big, brown bear! Just like the one you used to bring!" He chuckled at his Grampa, even if the old timer never talked back. Being a ball with four stars on it probably made that **really** hard. Still, just knowing he was here at all after the accident made Goku super happy! "Anyway, it's gettin' late so I gotta start cooking!"

Heading on over to the back of the house, Goku snatched the knife they used to skin the animals and did it to the bear as fast as he could, just like how his Grampa taught him. Then, with a big stick running through the whole bear, he spun it over the fire, salivating as his growling belly got louder and louder. The smell alone was almost enough to make him want to eat it but Grampa always told him to cook his meal good or else he'd get sick, so he did.

By the time it was all over, Goku's belly was so full it looked like he'd swallowed a boulder and for a while, he just lied on the ground, enjoying the last scent of sweet, sweet cooked bear meat. The sun was practically gone by then and the sky was in that weird in-between spot of looking kinda dark, but not night just yet. That was a good thing, he got to eat and wouldn't break the rules! With a satisfied burb, Goku's stomach shrank back to normal size and he happily walked back into the house.

"I got it done in time, Grampa!" He greeted the old man. "We're runnin' low on wood so I'll get some more these days, can't cook anythin' without it!"

Setting the Nyoibo next to his bed, Goku closed the doors shut then jumped onto his bed with a satisfying thud. "Sleep tight, Grampa!" He told the older man then unhooked the bed curtains, to make sure he couldn't see the full moon if it went out tonight. With a final, happy sigh, Goku closed his eyes and was snoring through the night in no time at all...

* * *

 **Several Hours Later...**

Goku didn't dream a lot, usually, he just slept through the night then woke up, ready to take on the world. But when he did, the dreams were... weird, and not in a good way. It was hard to put into words, when he was awake everything looked so big, the house, the trees, the cliffs, but when he dreamed, everything looked really small, almost like he was flying over it. Except he wasn't, because he felt his feet on the ground even though he was way up in the sky! Then when he tried to grab things, it was like grabbing a fistful of dirt, except this time there were lots of trees and big rocks instead!

That was the weird stuff, the scary thing, **the** scary thing was the roar. He didn't know where it was coming from but it wasn't a bear or tiger or anything he'd ever heard before! When it happened, it was loud enough to literally go over all the mountains! Goku wasn't a scaredy cat, he was more than happy to take on anything, even the monster his Grampa told him to never, ever get close to it. But this roar... It creeped him out, was it him hearing the monster in his sleep? He thought about it sometimes,...

Tonight, though, the dream got weirder. It started out like the usual stuff, but then he heard a weird wobbling noise, kinda like the time he spun his Nyoibo in the water slowly but not exactly. Then he swore he felt cold, then hot, then normal again but he couldn't wake up no matter how much it bugged him. Then there was a voice, it wasn't his and definitely not Grampa's, it sounded,... nice but kinda sad too, almost the same way Goku did when he mad his Grampa mad and felt bad about it. A part of him wanted to wake up then too, to see if it was real, because it sure sounded real, except he couldn't, again!

No, it wasn't until something else happened after the voice stopped talking that Goku finally could wake up when he heard something loud, mean and nasty growl just outside the house.

Snapping his eyes open, Goku leaped to his feet and stared at the direction of the noise and there, through the pretty thick curtains he saw something that seriously creeped him out. Eyes, two big, red eyes staring right at him and snarling the second meanest snarl he'd ever heard. That's when he growled back and shouted at it. "Get away from my house, monster!"

It answered by snarling even louder and banging against the wall! This ticked Goku off even more, with a swipe of his hand, he pushed the curtains away then froze when he saw it through the mostly open window with the moonlight illuminating just enough of it to give him a good look at it!.

"A bear?!" He said until he got a better look at it. It looked a lot like a bear, similar head shape, big bulky body, same teeth, but if it was a bear for real, Goku had never seen anything like it! Its head was covered with a big white bone all over it, with red markings running across and he swore he could see bones sticking out its back!

It snarled again then bashed into the wall again, managing to crack it and shake the whole house! Goku vaguely saw his Grampa shake back and forth in the shadowed table and knew if the beastie kept on banging, he might fall off and break!

"HEY- **YAA!"** With a mighty shout, Goku jumped into the air, left leg outstretched and kicked the monster right in the face, forcing it to back away. While it snarled outside, Goku went for his Nyoibo then cast a final look at his Grampa in the shadows. "Sorry! But I gotta stop it or it'll break our house!"

Pushing the doors open, Goku kept his head eyes trained firmly to ground level, making sure they didn't look up. It's not like he needed to, the smell of the thing was so strong he could've fought it blindfolded without trouble. That's when he noticed the scent, how it felt... wrong. It smelled almost like rotten meat, except it was clearly alive! It was an animal, but clearly not one, meaning there was only one explanation possible!

"The moon monster!" He exclaimed, thinking he'd finally get a chance to meet the thing that killed his Grampa, broke his house and everything! This got Goku good and mad, with another shout he charged at horrible thing snarling at him, it tried to swipe at him but Goku ducked underneath then swung his Nyoibo as hard as he could, landing a hit on it. He grinned when he saw teeth flying and the monster stagger back, but it was a tough one, instead of going down or even running away like most animals did, it just went for another attack.

Goku blocked a paw swipe with his staff and felt his whole body shake from the hit. He knew and fought some tough things before out in the forest, but none of them were tough and strong like this! Instead of blocking, Goku side-stepped another swipe and brought Nyoibo down on the back of its head, then swung again at the bones sticking out its back. The skull bone cracked but the spike broke and boy did it make the monster mad! It shouted even louder then, thrashing so wildly and so fast, Goku barely backflipped away from it clawing his face in time.

He couldn't help feeling a little excited from fighting something tougher for once, even if it was the freak responsible for Grampa's death, but it didn't last long when the creep thrashed into the side of their house, almost breaking the whole wall down!

"Get away from there!" Goku shouted and slid underneath the monster, then he grabbed its belly to throw it away from his home. It wasn't easy like the bear, though, which was nothing at all, the monster was so heavy Goku actually felt his muscles strain for once and when he finally managed to toss it, it didn't exactly go as far as he wanted it too. So then Goku decided to return the favor, ramming head first into the side of it over and over until he knew Grampa and the house were safe from it.

It was worth the headache he got. The monster kept snarling louder and louder, swiping at him with Goku dodging, his guard never letting up. He smacked it around a few more times until he knew he could get a good, clean finishing shot. With another shout that sounded almost like the monsters, Goku rammed his staff right through its ugly, red-eyed head. Finally, it stopped moving and fell over dead on the ground.

"That was for my Grampa!" He said, kicking it as he pulled Nyoibo out. Before he walked away, though, something weird happened. It started to smoke, but not the kind you got from cooking, it was black... and coming from the monster's body... its shrinking body. With a stunned look, Goku stared as it... melted away right in front of him until there was nothing left it except black ooze. He blinked a few times, then pinched and slapped himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

With a sigh, Goku put Nyoibo back in its holster then walked back to the house, scowling at the crack the monster made in it. "Oh man, I'm gonna have to fix it again! Well, at least he didn't... stomp it... this time..."

Taking a second to think about it, Goku wondered if it really was the monster after all. When he found Grampa and their house, it was all smashed up, like something a giant stepped on it. The thing he just fought wasn't that big, though, bigger than a normal bear for sure but definitely not big enough to crush a whole house. He kept thinking about this as he walked back then froze again when he saw Grampa lying on the floor.

"Oh no!" He ran inside, ignoring the thrown over broom handles and scooping his Grampa off the ground. "Grampa! Are you alright?!"

He felt terrified when Grampa felt wrong in his hand. He'd only picked him up a couple times after finding him in the mess of his crushed clothes but Goku knew Grampa was smooth to the touch, smoother than anything he'd ever felt in his life. This felt different, and not in a good way. Still, most of the house was too dark to see in so he moved closer to the window where the moon kept shining through, that's when Goku froze and felt his heart sink for the first time since the monster almost took everything from him.

Grampa, who used to be a smooth orange ball with four stars was now just a really, really round rock.

He almost shouted at the top of his lungs and even felt tears well up in his eyes when outside another snarl suddenly came out of nowhere, followed by another one, then another one. When he looked outside the door, farther into the forest, Goku saw three pairs of red eyes slowly creeping up right towards him...

* * *

 **A/N: That's all folks, hope you liked it! I've got ideas for more but until real life affairs are sorted out, don't expect more. Still, I had fun writing this and hope I gave you a (good) crossover fic for once.**


	2. A Rocky Start

"What did you do to my Grampa?!" Goku gave the red-eyed monsters coming at him his meanest look. His whole body was shaking, ready to take a piece of them. There was no way they weren't responsible for turning Grampa into a rock, something weird like that happening the night they show up? Goku wasn't dumb enough to miss that!

When they just snarled at him again, he put Grampa back where he belonged and rushed outside. The monsters were running at him then with Goku letting them get close. When they clawed at him, he slid under the middle one and extended Nyoibo mid-slide.

That tripped the monsters up good, giving him plenty of time to dish out some pain. Jumping onto the middle on, Goku kept one hand on its backbone and rammed Nyoibo through its chest with the other. He almost rammed Nyoibo through its black, ugly hide when its pals got on their back feet and clawed at him.

Goku jumped out of the way in time and only stayed on ground level for a second before bouncing back up, giving one of the creeps a spin kick to the head. A hit like that was strong enough to snap a tree in half, but the monster just smashed into the dirt, groaned and then got right back up!

"Okay! How about this!?" He let the kicked one take another swing at him and timed his punch for it. "Gu!" It stopped the monster's paw. "Chyoki!" He jammed two fingers into its left eye. "Pa!" Pulling his arm back as far as he could, Goku smashed his open palm into its snout and watched it go over the other two in a big, black hairy pile. " **Janken!** "

It didn't fly as high as the tiger did, it didn't fly at all really, more like tumbled back into its pals in the back. When it didn't get back up Goku thought for sure it was a goner. Until it did, bone snout cracked a but still looking mean and ready to fight.

"Woah... That was my best move...!" Goku stared at it, angry but wowed by how tough it was. That got him even madder, the monsters who messed with Grampa weren't supposed to impress him! He wasn't the only one angrier, the broken snout one charged him so fast Goku barely got Nyoibo out in time to keep it from eating his face. The second it bit down on it, he was off the ground and being tossed all over the place. The monster thrashed all over the place with the much smaller Goku holding on to the only thing he knew could hurt them good.

"Extend!" He shouted in the middle of the swing and Nyoibo dug into the ground at the opposite side the monster was moving its head. There was a nasty scratching sound followed by an even nastier snapping one. Before its teeth hit the ground, it stood up on its back legs and shouted loud enough to make Goku's ears ring a little. But he knew an opening when he saw one and took it. Ducking and jumping under its incoming pals, Goku jabbed Nyoibo like a spear and rammed it through the monster's jaw and into its skull.

He'd barely gotten Nyoibo out when one of them finally got him good in the back of the head. For a second, Goku's mind went blank from the surprising strength behind it before his instincts kicked backed in. Using his momentum, Goku spun away from a few more hits then snapped his extended staff at them which got them to back off for a second. With a second to catch his breath, he noticed a beating pain where they got him. When his fingers touched the spot, his whole arm jerked away from it.

"T-they got me!" Goku realized, feeling actual pain for the first time in a while. He couldn't even remember the last time anyone but Grampa Gohan managed to do that and his Grampa couldn't fight for a long time by then! He was still mad, but he couldn't shake away some of the... excitement from showing up again. He loved taking on Grampa, even if he got his butt handed to him every time, it scratched an itch he almost forgot he even had nowadays.

He was about to go for another round with them when his ears picked up more snarls coming from all over the forest, along with the ground shaking something fierce. Goku would recognize those snarls anywhere and the way the ground shook didn't leave much room to think of anything else. That's when he figured out how big this pack really was, not four, but closer to ten or even more, and they were all coming this way.

It made him mad, scared and yes, just a little bit excited all at the same time.

* * *

 **30 Minutes Later...**

The last one, the fourteenth or the eleventh was limping, basically dragging its stabbed paw over the ground, trying to circle him. Half its mask was broken off and Goku was pretty sure one of its eyes was bleeding, it was kinda hard to tell. Goku could relate to it, he wasn't exactly having an easy time keeping Nyoibo in its direction. His head hurt from all the times they banged on it, his shoulder hurt even after he snapped it back into place and that bite on his leg was seriously throwing him off. He had to keep bouncing it off the ground.

He didn't feel excited anymore, or mad, just tired and not in a good way. The monsters came at him faster than he thought they would before he even finished off the last two there were three more rushing at him. They didn't stop, which made it really hard for him to even catch his breath. Thankfully, this was the last one, the others tried howling for more help but as far as Goku could feel or hear, there weren't any around. Just this last one.

Trying to rush it wouldn't work, he wasn't sure his leg or shoulder would take it and after one of them nearly stomped on his tail, scaring him like you wouldn't believe, Goku wanted to end this fast but no risks. In the shape he was in, even an ordinary bear would probably have a decent shot at him, nevermind this twisted freak show. So he waited until it looked ready to jump and when it did, he stabbed Nyoibo into the ground and let the extending shoot him up into the air. He hung there for a second, looking at the big moon for a split second before retracting the staff then re-extending it for a big mid-air swing.

When the monsters snarling stopped and he saw half its head roll on the grass, Goku knew he'd done it. It didn't make him any less sore when he hit the ground, on his bad shoulder too.

"Ow," He groaned, using Nyoibo to pull himself back up. The monster was melting away just like all the rest of its pals, in fact, he couldn't even find the rest of them anywhere. Even their horrible smell was gone, mostly. He double checked again and sure enough, there weren't any more of them around from what he could hear, see or feel. They were all gone. "That's what you get for messing with my Grampa..."

Using Nyoibo to help himself walk, Goku slowly got back to the house which thankfully didn't get smashed any more than it already was. With the fighting over, he started thinking about some things he picked up on earlier. For one thing, the moon looked way bigger all of a sudden. Sometimes, when his Grampa was sleeping like a log, he'd take a peek at the moon and noticed how white and small it was. Now? It looked way bigger, like a hundred times bigger and it looked broken too, like a big cracked egg!

The second thing he noticed was the forest, it sounded and smelled... wrong. Not like the monsters, just way different. For one thing, the grass around the house was up to his knees when it was just under his feet before. Plus, he could hear lots and lots of tree leaves ruffling from the wind, except there weren't any trees so close to his home, it was in a big, open clearing. He couldn't hear the cliff with the pond either, the one he used to fish sometimes when he felt like it.

"This whole night is weirder and weirder..." He mumbled, feeling more and more sore the closer he got to his house. Luckily, his Grampa had a bunch of herbs and medicine there to make him feel better when he got hurt which wasn't often. All of these weird things made him forget for a second that Grampa changed too, he was still on his table, looking like a round rock and the worry he felt for him was ten times worse than any bruise or muscle pain.

Reaching into the cupboard, Goku first took out a bottle with some smelly white stuff and pulled the torn up part of his pants where the monster bit him. It didn't bite him too deep near his ankle but it didn't stop him from wincing when he poured a little of the smelly stuff onto his leg. Then, he took some white rope, shoved big green leaves into it then tied around the wound. He did the same with his head bumps and shoulder.

"Man, I'm beat,..." By the time he was finished with it all, Goku was feeling sleepy and hungry. As he sat with his back on the far side wall with Nyoibo in one hand and Grampa in the other, facing the doors leading outside, he almost thought about going out for a late night hunt. Whenever he got hungry, it made him feel really tired and that was when he wasn't beaten up too.

Then he looked at Grampa and decided not to, he could practically hear him wagging a finger at him and telling him to rest up first, that he might just get into more trouble by going out there at night and banged up. It made him smile a little.

"Good night, Grampa." With a long sigh, he closed his eyes and clutched the staff and Grampa closer before he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 **The Next Morning...**

Birds chirping was the first thing he heard followed by his own loud yawn. Rubbing his eyes open, Goku saw the sun shining through the window and wall cracks, a nice thing to look at after the creepy blacks and whites and reds of last nights fight. Grampa and Nyoibo were still in his hands and from what he could tell, nothing tried any funny stuff while he was out.

"My head doesn't hurt so bad," He said after gently patting the bandage around his head. Although, with so much of his hair tied back, it itched like crazy. Getting back on his feet, he gently moved his shoulder up and down, it still ached but he was pretty sure he could move it around easier now. The bite mark probably healed the least, which made sense. He took a few steps around the hose, only wincing a little when the pain shot back up.

All in all, it wasn't too bad. The worst problem was his stomach growling like a monster. Not for the first time, Goku wished he had some way to keep meat around the house without it going rotten, he could sure use something like that now.

"Oh well, guess I'll just do it ol' fashioned way!" Moving back to the table, he put Grampa on his pillow then walked over to the doors, when he opened them, he couldn't help but stare at what he found. "I-I knew it! The forest is weird!"

Spikier grass reaching up to his knees was suddenly all over the place, along with big, thick trees only a short walk away from the house. It was so thick in-fact, Goku who's eyes were pretty good at seeing stuff, couldn't do it here, the whole forest looked black with the heavy leaves blocking out the sun. The road leading up to the house was gone and when he took a walk around the house, he noticed that even their pile of logs was missing!

"What's goin' on here?!" He scratched his head, trying to figure out how everything could change in the middle of the night! Was this the monsters messing with him? Did they change the forest to throw him off? Whatever it was, it wouldn't make him any less hungry.

Walking back inside, Goku slapped his hands together and almost told his Grampa okay when he stopped all of a sudden. A really weird feeling creeped up out of nowhere, the last time he took his eyes off Grampa, the monsters changed him into a rock. He'd left him before a million times, but now everything was... off, like, if the forest was different, what if different animals were around all of a sudden too? Like a rock eating animal or something? He'd just fought one's that melted away!

"Looks like you're coming with me! Just like before!" He put Grampa into a pouch and tied it real hard around his belt, then they were off. This time, Goku always kept the staff in his hand, one for trouble and to help with his healing leg. His other hand was never more than a couple of inches away from Grampa's pouch.

Focusing on the forest kept him from feeling too hungry, there was a lot to take in. New smells, new sounds, with Grampa there, it felt like the first few times they went hunting together, he was getting to know the place all over again. He spotted birds flying around, squirrels jumping up and down but they wouldn't be nearly enough for him. After last night, he needed a big catch.

"A tiger would be pretty good about now," He liked his lips at the idea of chowing down on one again when he spotted some berries in a bush. "Ohh, those'll help!"

He wasn't happy to see them for long, picking them out Goku took a whiff of them and smelled something funny about them. They looked like the berries he sometimes ate between big meals, but the smell was anything but. Touching Grampa's pouch, Goku remembered his advice on foraging: don't eat anything you aren't absolutely sure about, and he wasn't with these, no matter how much he wanted something to chow down on.

"Guess I'll wait a little longer,.." He dropped the berries and went deeper into the forest, checking for any big animal tracks on the ground, listening to any loud breathing or any hard ground shaking. His belly was growling louder after a while, and he was starting to get worried he'd have to settle for squirrels or birds which were a pain in the butt to catch on the best of days, never mind when he was hurt.

That was when his ears picked up a sound he'd recognize anywhere: the sound of a river splashing close by. A second later, he thought of fish and was off towards it like his life depended on it.

"Please don't be weird, please don't be weird," He repeated on the way there and when he saw the blue water, looking, sounding and smelling normal, he knew a good meal was on the way. It was pretty wide from what he could see, it would probably take him a big running jump just to get to the other side but even in it, he could see delicious fishies swimming in it.

"Breakfast, here I come," He giggled out, taking his clothes off and putting them a couple steps away from the river's edge. Then he dipped his tail into the water and waited. Goku knew fish couldn't resist taking a bite out of him.

For a while, he stayed happy, thinking any second now something big and juicy would jump at his dipped tail. But besides some fishies occasionally swimming past it, nothing happened, besides his stomach growling louder and his hurt leg starting to ache from standing in place for so long.

"Aw man,..." He pouted, scowling at the river. "What's wrong with you?! Why aren't you tryin' t'eat me?!"

When he got no answer from the fish, which he knew they could do, animals talked, after all, he just gave them his second meanest look then walked back to Nyoibo.

"Fine, I've got 'nother way of catchin' you!"

Lifting Grampa's staff to the side of his head like a spear, Goku eyed the swimming fish real carefully than with a shout, jammed it into the water. When he pulled it out, he found one skewered right through the middle. From what he could see, it was about as long as his arm.

"I was hopin' for something bigger but it'll hafta do," He tossed it away then kept skewering more and more of them until he had a good pile of around 20 reaching up to his waist. "At least they'll cook fast!"

Putting his clothes back on, Goku smashed a bit of the nearest tree for firewood and sticks to cook the fish. He was halfway back to his meal, smiling at fishies when the ground started shaking and a loud howling noise rang through the trees. It sounded like a wolf, sort of.

Putting the firewood down, he readied Nyoibo in the direction of the growing noise. He heard birds flying away overhead, brushes and grass being stomped on and a hungry snarling noise getting louder and louder. Then, in the thick forest, he saw them: two big, red eyes.

"W-what?!" He shouted when the thing finally reached him, it was a wolf alright, the biggest one he'd ever seen. Just like the monster bears, it had a big, bone white mask over its face with a bunch of spikes all over its crazy long arms, legs, and back. It smelled just like the monster bears too, which made no sense because even the same type of fish he'd caught all had a different scent!

"How are you here, monster?!" He shouted, trying to sound tougher than he felt. If it got scared of him, it didn't show it. If anything, the sudden nervousness Goku felt about taking it on only made its horrible, red eyes widen, like he was looking at a big, juicy steak.

It scared him almost as much as the fact it was there at all. It didn't make sense, monsters were only supposed to come out in the full moon!

But how and why didn't matter pretty soon, when it charged at him, Goku had to focus on staying alive. If the bears from last night were slow, the wolf was a whole other league. It was on him so fast Goku barely got Nyoibo on the right spot to block an overhead swipe.

It was strong too, making his whole body shake from the impact, his shoulder, and leg suddenly hurt like crazy. He groaned and managed to push the claw away, barely avoiding another swipe from clashing across his chest when he lost his footing. He'd forgotten about the danged slippery rocks!

Next thing Goku knew, his back was hitting the rocks and he had to jam an extended Nyoibo into the monsters snarling mouth to keep it from clawing at him. It was relentless, never stopping to take a breath or try another strategy, forcing him to crawl backward while the monster it kept coming at him.

As much as he wanted to, winning this fight wasn't gonna happen, and unlike the last time an animal had him cornered when he was really, really little, there was no Grampa to swoop in and save him this time.

Grinding his teeth, Goku did the only thing that made sense and pushed the monster away fast enough to jump into the river. For a second, the cool feeling of it shook off the pain of his injuries and the hunger, it even made him relieved until the monster went in after him.

What happened next was a crazy blur of Goku trying to get away, using his smile size and the slower monster to stay away from it while the river pushed them on and on. One of its side spikes managed to cut him across the back but Goku got some payback by stabbing it in the gut with Nyoibo.

Then the river vanished all of a sudden, and both of them were in mid-air. When Goku saw why, how the river actually feeds into the biggest waterfall he'd ever seen, Goku couldn't help but use a nasty word his Grampa said once then told him to never use when he realized his grandson heard it.

If the monster was worried, it didn't show it, even with a fall that could kill both of them, it just kept flailing around for Goku. He tried to extended Nyoibo, maybe bury it in each side of the cliff to stop his fall and finally get away from the wolf but every time he thought an opening was there, monster swing in a way that forced him to block or duck.

As if things couldn't get any worse, Goku spotted a whole bunch of big, sharp looking rocks at the bottom. He almost cursed again until an idea suddenly came to him: use the rocks to his advantage.

If he could time it just right, he could use the monster to break his fall, letting it smash against the rocks and water while he got off easier.

When the beastie snarled at him again, Goku managed to stab the sack inside its mouth with Nyoibo. While it coughed and flailed around, Goku got around its back and buried his hands into its black hide. It tried to get him off, managing to come close a couple of times at cutting his head and tail but Goku just powered on through and hoped his plan would work.

Grampa was definitely looking out for him when it did, the monster hit a nasty looking rock with a big crunch that took its head off. The rest of it hit a few more on the way down and Goku actually thought he'd pulled it off when he too bonked his head to the side of a smaller rock and was out like a light.

* * *

 **A/N: As you can probably tell by this chapter, exams are done and were very successful to boot! Meaning I've got more time to continue the fic! For those wondering as to why the four star DB is inert, it's been taken away to another universe, cut off from God (Kami) and the rest of the DB set. Next chapter, we'll be seeing where exactly in Remnant Goku has ended up which I think will surprise you.**


	3. The First Step

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"Ow!" Goku yelped when he hit his cheek instead of... whatever was making that annoying sound. It'd been going on for a while, with Goku mumbling for it to go away or shut up until he couldn't take it anymore. As he was waking up, he noticed the other stuff that hurt, his shoulder, the leg bite, and his bumped head were all bugging him. The worst was the cut on his back from the wolf monster. Just lying there, on the wet and weird smelling grass was enough to force himself up, even if the pain got worse on the way there.

"Where am I?" He asked and looked around, it looked like a forest but it was full of water. Really, really green looking water with tons of little grass sticking on top of it. The trees sticking out were real thick too, almost three times thicker than the ones he was used to seeing, and the way they twisted at weird angles made them look sort of creepy. But it wasn't waking up in this place that made Goku freeze, it was realizing Nyoibo and Grampa weren't there.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no,..." He looked around like his life depended on it, and noticed he was a big, grassy shore right next to the water. The big water that looked like it went on forever... He dived right into the big grassy pushes, working his nose like never before. A hundred smells he'd never felt before were all over the place, and Goku knew how water could wash away a scent if you left something in it for too long.

Luckily, Nyoibo wasn't too far, just buried in some sticky grass Goku pulled out with the kind of strength he usually saved for throwing boulders. "Okay," He sighed in relief. "I found you! Now for Grampa!"

His relief didn't last long, no matter where he sniffed or looked or how much grass and dirt he pulled out, Grampa was gone. The only other place left to look that made any sense was the water. He didn't waste a second jumping into it. The water was pretty warm even if the green look made it harder to see in it. He poked around with Nyoibo at anything that looked like a pouch or rock, when it looked like nothing was on the shore, he swam deeper.

He went up for air three times, took a few deep breathes then want right back in. The first couple of tripes didn't work out, but on the third, near a mess of tree branches, Goku squinted then almost jumped for joy when he saw Grampa's pouch stuck there. With a big grin and fast grab, he got Grampa out of there and swam back up, spitting out some water before laughing.

"Sorry, Grampa! I promise I won't lose you again!" With a big grin, Goku almost swam back to shore but stopped when he saw something big, scaly and almost as green as most of the water start crawling down it. It wasn't one of the monsters, he could tell just by looking at it, but it wasn't anything he'd seen before either. Well, almost, he'd seen a few lizards smaller than his first crawling around the grass and rocks back home. This looked like them, except a hundred times bigger!

When his belly growled, Goku knew he had to risk it, a big catch like this could feed him for a while and let him fight more of the monsters if he ran into them. He knew the lizard was thinking the same thing just from the way it was looking at him. Even with its whole body being dragged, it came down the shore pretty fast and was getting to him in no time.

He heard a rumbling noise come from it and the second it swam faster, Goku made his move. Nyoibo blasted out of the water with his good arm swinging it, hitting the lizard so hard a whole bunch of its scales went flying all over the place. Blood was coming from where he got it and when it started sinking, he knew it was done for.

"Oh no, you don't!" He put Nyoibo between his teeth and grabbed the lizards tail before it went under, then with all the strength he had, Goku swam back to shore, ignoring the pains, the hunger, all of it just because there was a good chance he'd get to finally eat something!

"Come on! Come on!" He growled, dragging it far away from the water but it took him way longer than it should've, if he was feeling better, he knew he'd be able to carry it all the way back home no problem! When he finally got to drier land, he tossed it down then got to see what it was made of. The spot near the neck where he hit it didn't have any scales no more, shoving a lot of tender, juicy looking meat.

He checked around, finding some rocks and branches lying around then started smashing away the lizard's scales, by the time he was done, everything besides the head was just a big load of meat, nice smelling, pink meat for cooking. After starting a fire by banging a couple of rocks together by the branches, Goku extended Nyoibo through the lizard and hoisted it above the fire.

This time, he kept a good eye and ear out for more monsters, he wouldn't let one of them catch him by surprise again. He had a pretty good idea he wouldn't last another fight if they did. Luckily, the meat burned good and fast, meaning Goku was able to chow down in no time at all. The second he bit a chunk out, it was like all his problems were gone and he was just back to doing normal stuff again.

In no time flat, the lizard was gone besides his head and Goku was back on his back, his belly ginormous but finally full. "Yyyyeeeahhh, that's the good stuff,..."

He didn't know how long he lied there, one hand on his stomach and the other around Grampa but it didn't matter, he was gonna enjoy it for as long as he could. He thought about going back to sleep for a while, but after thinking about it for a second decided not to. His hunger might've been gone, but there was other stuff to take care off. So, with a loud belch, his belly shrank back to normal and he jumped back up, taking Nyoibo out of the lizards head and ramming it into the ground.

"Extend!" He told it and it did, going up and up and up until he was just above the super tall, twisted trees. "Woah," He whispered, shifting around the staff to see where he'd ended up. The last thing he remembered before ending up there was falling off a giant cliff with a river running down it, but this weird forest was so thick, so covered up thanks to the trees, there was no way he could see anything below him. Really far away, so far he had to squint hard to just barely see them, he thought he could make out some mountains that might've been the one's he drifted from down the river, but there were lots of them from what he could see. Weirdly, there was a whole big spot where it looked like the forest just... stopped then started all over again.

"Looks like I won't be gettin' back home any time soon," Goku said on the way back down. He stopped to check his wounds, getting some grub helped out a lot, his shoulder felt pretty normal, his bite mark only hurt a little, it was the backslash that still bugged him most. "Well, I won't get back any faster if I stand round here!"

As far as he figured, he could either jump from tree to tree or swim. Swimming would be faster but if there were monsters down there or other freaky animals, he might get into trouble, so he decided to bounce around instead. With a running start, he jammed Nyoibo in the ground and laughed as it sent him flying through the sky.

This was how the rest of the day passed, Goku jumping from tree to tree, taking in the look and smell and sound of the place better. He stopped to hunt and eat a couple more times, sticking and cooking more lizards wherever he could find some dry land, resting then starting all over again. By the time night started to fall, he was pretty sure he made some good distance for the day.

But night time was night time, and even with the extra long nap he took floating over here, he needed to sleep. So, on the last tree he landed on, he climbed all the way to the top, checked the leaves carefully for any snakes or monsters then lied down on a big, thick branch when it looked clear. Somewhere to the side, the moon was shining like crazy again, still looking big from the small part of Goku let himself look at.

Something about staring at it made him feel funny so he stopped and stared at the stars instead. Then he squinted at them, "Wait, they're weird too!"

A long time ago, his Grampa sat him down on a night when the moon was totally covered and started teaching him about... constellations? Yeah, that was the word. Basically, people could use stars to see where they were going or needed to go and Grampa taught him which ones to keep an eye out for if he ever got lost at night for whatever reason. But no matter where Goku looked, the stars weren't there, he didn't recognize any of them and he knew he hadn't forgotten either!

"It's like everythin' gone crazy,..." He said, suddenly feeling lonely and holding Nyoibo and Grampa much, much closer than a second ago. It made it hard to sleep, for a while, until he did anyway.

The next few days followed this routine, no monsters attacked him and he couldn't smell or hear any. The lizard meat was getting kind of old but it filled him up good so he didn't mind much, sleep wasn't bad, just kind of there. His back injury was starting to itch though and when Goku scratched it, it made it hurt even worse. Taking a couple quick dips made it a little better but it kept bothering him so much he started sleeping off his back. The mountains where the cliff might've been looked a little closer but Goku still had to squint like crazy to see them, still, every little bit meant he was getting closer so it was okay!

It was on the seventh day out when the routine broke when he heard a noise that he'd never heard before in his entire life.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

It was coming from the east, closer to the big empty spot in the forest he'd noticed. It kinda sounded like thunder if he wanted to find something like it. That wasn't the biggest deal of all though, it was the next thing he heard.

"Holy crap! They're everywhere!"

Goku's mind blanked out when he realized that was a person, he'd heard another person's voice for the first time in... like a million years! He couldn't help but feel excited and really interested. "Wait, them?" He said, wondering who the voice must've been talking about when it screamed again before being drowned out by the snarl of a monster! The monster was gonna kill that person!

"Sorry Grampa, we're takin' a little detour!" Goku started jumping faster from tree to tree, the thunder noise, screams and growls all getting louder the closer he got. Pretty soon, he started catching a whiff of the monster's stench too.

"Die you ugly bastard! Die!" The voice shouted at the monster, a couple more thunder noises came out before they stopped, replaced by a clicking sound like a woodchipper. That's when the man screamed so loud Goku's ear hurt just from hearing it.

By the time he got there, he saw why, the man, who was wearing a really black long shirt and pants was bleeding from a cut near his belly and the thing attacking him was a monster that looked like a bigger, nastier version of the lizards he'd been eating the past few days. It had a million small spikes running across its back then a few much bigger ones on its tail. Goku would have to make sure to stay away from that.

"Hey! Monster!" He shouted at it from the nearby tree and threw a branch at it just to make sure it didn't ignore him. It's big, boney head snapped towards him and with a crazy fast speed, the thing was back in the water and coming right towards him.

Goku let it smash into the tree before jumping away as far as he could, landing perfectly on dry land. The lizard monster didn't stay down with the tree long, it was back in no time at all and swinging its tail left and right like a big mallet. Then it snapped at him, forcing him to sidestep away. He got a hit in with Nyoibo and it cracked the skull a little but this monster was tougher than the rest he'd fought so far.

That's what it looked like until Goku noticed how big its mouth was... and how Nyoibo was just the right size to fight into it straight up. "Hey! You wanna bite me?" He turned around and stuck his tongue out at it, swinging his tail around. "Go ahead! Do it!"

When the lizard snapped, Goku didn't side step, he went right towards it, timing his jab just right and putting Nyoibo inside its mouth. The monster went pretty berserk then with a big, upturned stick keeping it from closing its mouth. He could see it trying to reach in to grab it out and straining to snap it in half but Goku knew how tough Nyoibo was, no monster would break it, ever.

He carefully walked up towards the beastie, avoiding a few claw swipes before poking Nyoibo. "Extend!"

And boy did it, for a while, the monster thrashed around even harder while Goku heard how its skull bone was snapping against the extending staff inside its mouth. When Nyoibo shot through the top of its skull, it hit the floor with a loud thud then started to smoke. He knew it was done for.

"H-holy crap," Goku turned around to the man lying there, staring at him like he couldn't believe he was real. He kinda felt the same thing back, honestly. "T-thank you..."

"Aw it's no problem-" He almost laughed it off before he realized the guy was bleeding. "Oh! Sorry, I forgot you were hurt!"

"Wish I could," The man laughed, bleeding a little out of his mouth when he did and covering his brown beard with it. He wasn't as old as Grampa, not even close but he definitely wasn't Goku's age either, he was someplace in-between... Maybe, Goku never met anyone but Grampa so could be wrong about that. But that didn't really matter, that nasty looking cut near his belly did.

"Really should've brought that medicine," Goku growled, feeling like even more of an idiot then. "Uhh, look, I think we can maybe stop that if you tied your shirt around it but-"

"I gotta get home," He said, wincing a lot. "They can fix me up there, the boss won't let me die, not... after what I found for im..."

"Uhh, okay,..." Goku tried not to sound too confused by that. "So, uh, where's your home?"

"Kuchinashi..." He whispered then nodded behind them. Goku tried to think of where that was, it wasn't the mountains for sure, they were right from where they were standing. "Gotta get back,... don't wanna die... the boss,..."

"Wait, is that where the forest stops?" He looked confused for a second before nodding. "Oh! So that's why it stops! You cut down the trees there to make a house!"

That confused look came back before he nodded again. "Sure kid, me and a whole lotta other folks..."

He was looking worse so Goku decided to stop with the questions and help him out. As gently as he could, he got that big, black shirt off him and tied it around the wound, using some red rope he had around his neck to tie it extra hard in-place. By the time he was done, he picked up the whiff of more monsters around and knew he couldn't afford to take em on then, not with the guy dying here next to him.

The man groaned when Goku lifted him off the ground then started running and jumped as far as he could. The backslash was starting to really bother him but Goku couldn't afford to stop and scratch it. The monsters were close by and with both his hands occupied, he couldn't even stop to take Nyoibo out without maybe dropping the poor man by accident.

"T-thank you,..."

"Don't mention it! My Grampa always taught me to help someone out!"

"Sounds like... a helluva guy,..."

"Yeah, he was the toughest there ever was!"

The man actually laughed a little. "You obviously haven't met the boss kid..."

"The boss?"

"Hei Xiong, kid, the man who runs Kuchinashi,..."

* * *

 **A/N: And with that, Goku's journey into the larger world of RWBY has officially begun!**


	4. New Friends

"Woah,..." When he was smaller, Grampa left home for the first time in a while after he was pretty sure Goku could handle the forest by himself. He asked Grampa where he was going and got his first idea of what a 'city' is. From what Grampa said, it was like their house times a hundred with lots and lots of people living inside them. Hongqi, or Mutt, the guy he'd saved and spent the whole day bringing back home said a lot of the same stuff about Kuchinashi too.

But man, seeing it was totally different from imagining it. The houses reminded him of home with the big, curved roofs but they were way taller and way wider. They had all sorts of colors, blue, green, yellow purple, although night time made that kinda hard to spot at first.

They were glowing from the inside out and had big lamps on poles all over the place making it look even shinier. From the hill where he stopped a second to look, Goku could see so many people walking down there. He knew there were lots of people out there but Grampa really didn't do the number any justice!

Of all the houses, the biggest one was a ways off from the town itself, it was bigger than all the rest combined with walls going up a few feet and a big door to get inside. Mutt told him that's where the boss lived, from what Goku got, a boss was someone who gave you stuff if you did things for him, like fighting monsters or finding things. Apparently, lots of towns had people who did things like that.

"The... house with the metal door in the back..." Mutt pointed at it, he sounded really weak and was looking pretty white in the face too. Even his wound was starting to smell funny.

"Got it!" Goku went down the hill to the place Mutt told him, he tried not to stare at the town but it was all so full of... activity, he couldn't help himself. Plus he smelled things he'd never smelled before, some of them were stuff he wanted to stay away from but a lot of them made him hungry. But he wasn't about to eat until Mutt got better.

When they got to the door, Mutt told him to bang on it a few times. From the other side, Goku felt some big feet stomp on the ground before a bit of the door near the top slid open. The problem was, Goku and Mutt were all the way down near the bottom.

"Who is it?" The man on the door said in a really rough but confused voice. "This a prank or-"

"Down here..."

"Mutt?!" He almost shouted before sliding the door bit closed. Goku heard a whole bunch of clicking noise with something being shoved before the door opened up all the way. The guy there was dressed like Mutt, black pants, suit, gloves, with that weird red rope round his neck. He didn't have Mutt's beard, he didn't have hair at all but he was pretty tall, might've been the tallest person Goku'd ever seen!

When he looked at them, his mouth hanged open in a pretty funny look. "Holy crap! What happened?! Why're you with this kid?!"

"Job for the boss," Mutt said. "Grimm almost got me... but the kid saved me..."

"Don't worry man! We'll get the doc to fix you up!" Before Goku knew it, Mutt was out of his arms and being carried by the big guy somewhere inside, before he could call after them, he smashed the door shut right in his face!

"Hey!" Goku shouted before banging on the door again, angry that they were just gonna leave him out here while Mutt was still hurt! Nobody answered him then or the next two times he did it. On the third, he got real mad and kicked it instead and down it went with a big loud thud. He heard people talking somewhere inside but he didn't care, he smelled Mutt's blood going somewhere down and followed the scent.

He rushed in that direction then stopped at a hole, except it wasn't going straight down but kinda to the side, and there were these big things going lower and lower he had to step on to get to the bottom. Goku heard lots of voices down there and smelled some stuff kinda like Grampa's medicine too, the voices were shouting above and below him, a few wondering about Mutt but the rest were yelling about the door being knocked down.

When he reached the bottom, he saw even more people, all of them dressed like Mutt but a few looked scrawnier, and with long hair and their chests were bigger than the others. A couple of them were going up before Goku ran into them, the rest he saw were doing something to Mutt on the table.

"What is that kid doing here?" Big Bald who closed the door in his face shouted then walked over, looking pretty mean. "How'd you get here?!"

"I tried knockin' on the door politely but you were bein' a jerk so I knocked it down and came here!"

Big Bald and the two guys next to him just looked for a second before laughing at him, they laughed for a while too and Goku didn't like it, it sounded mean. When Mutt screamed all of a sudden, Goku tried to run past them but Big Bald's hand took him by surprise, shoving him so hard his back hit the wall. He couldn't stop the yelp from getting out, the back cut pain just got so bad all off a sudden he couldn't help it. It didn't help they started laughing at him again.

"Beat it, kid!" Big Bald shouted, going from laughing to mad in a second. "Before I-"

His rough voice became really loud and whiny sounding when Goku's punch got him in the groin, he fell on his knees, making a loud, annoying breathing noise. Goku shut him up with another punch to the chest and he skids across the floor, past the group around Mutt before banging his head against the wall on the other side of the room. Everyone in the room stopped dead beside Mutt who's shirt was gone with some weird, white-gloved old guy touching his belly cut.

"Serves you right for bein' a jerk!" Goku shouted at Big Balg who just stared at him with big, bulging eyes from the floor. Then they narrowed, looking really mad and he snarled his way back up. He looked ready to go again and so was Goku.

"Bai!" Mutt shouted from the table, sounding stronger than Goku'd ever heard him. "The kid... saved my life! Hurt him and... I'll make sure the boss... takes your head for it!"

Big Bald, or Bai, looked really white all of a sudden. His mouth opened and shut like maybe he wanted to say something but he didn't, instead, he just nodded then scowled back at Goku. "Let the kid stay," He said like it actually hurt him.

The room didn't feel as dangerous then, and the two guys in front of him didn't stop Goku from walking past them and up to the table. When he got there, the man with the white gloves was pouring something smelling close to Grampa's medicine on the belly cut. Mutt looked like it hurt him a lot for a second before he relaxed.

"Alright," The gloved man said, he reached into a weird bag on the table and pulled out some really thin rope and a something that looked like a tiny knife. "Give him something to bite down on then hold him, this won't be pleasant for him."

Someone put that red rope in Mutt's mouth while Big Bald pressed down on Mutt's legs. Goku ran over to his head and put both hands on his shoulders. "Like this?"

Big Bald, the gloved guy, and everyone else looked at him funny again but Mutt spoke up again. "The kid can do it... Trust me... He's strong enough..."

That funny looked stayed until the gloved guy nodded. "If you say so, Mutt."

Goku didn't get what he was doing until he started digging the rope into the belly cut, into one side then the other. He called them out on it but the gloved guy explained it was there to close to the wound so it didn't bleed anymore. After that, Goku shut up and let him do his thing, Mutt didn't budge an inch on his end but he saw Big Bald's arms shaking while they kept his lower half done. During it all, Mutt was bitting on the rope hard, Goku was pretty sure if it wasn't there, he would've broken a tooth or two then.

He and everyone else in the room finally relaxed when the gloved man, the doc Big Bald mentioned earlier, was finished after putting something fluffy around the cut then dying it with thick looking rope on both ends.

"That should do, for now, you'll need to take it easy for a while and change the bandages but luckily, it wasn't too deep and didn't get infected. I swear, that kills more people around here than injuries do."

"Uhh, doc? The kid's hurt too." One of the guys around the table behind Goku said.

"What, this?" He turned around, giving everyone on the other end of the table a good look at the cut. "I mean, it hurt when I hit the wall but its not too bad."

"Lad," The doctor said, walking up to him. "When did you get this?"

"A few days ago, one of those monsters cut me while we were fightin' down a waterfall."

Nobody said anything, giving Goku that shocked, eye bulging funny look again.

"Erm, right," The doctor coughed. "Why don't I just... take a look at it, hm?"

"You better,..." Mutt warned from the table even though he looked asleep.

The doctor gulped then nodded at Goku. "May I?"

"If you can fix it up, sure!" Goku smiled then turned around to give him a better look. The pain got worse again when the doc touched it a couple of times but he powered through it.

"Well, it's not too deep thankfully, but you'll need some bandages regardless, some medicine too for the bit of infection there."

The others in the room started doing other stuff while the doc worked on Goku, a few of them left and never became back, Big Bald pulled out some weird, white square out of his pants then started talking into it, something about Mutt being here and the boss needing to know about it right away. That same weird rope from before was tied around Goku's chest and the bite mark too. Then the doc gave him some weird, seed looking things to eat and drink down. They didn't have any smell, weirdly enough but they didn't taste bad either.

Big Bald walked over to Mutt then whispered about the boss coming soon, then he looked at Goku with a mostly not mean face. "Hey kid," he said. "You hungry?"

"Sure! Do you guys have any bears or tigers?"

Big Bald and a few others blinked at him. "Bears,... or tigers?"

"Yeah," Goku smiled and nodded as he put the top of his dogi back on. "I've been eatin' lotsa those big lizards, kinda sick of em really."

They blinked again, bobbing their heads a couple of times. "Sure,... Hey! You two!" He shouted at a couple guys near the side-hole. "Hows about you do something for a living and get the kid some noodles from the kitchen?"

The two of them walked up the side-hole and vanished with Big Bald going over to talk to the white square again. Goku looked around, noticing a few of them staring at him but the others just sort of ignored him.

"Hey," He snapped over to Mutt who was looking a lot less white in the face then. "You're in for a treat kid, this place makes the best noodles in town."

"What's a noodle?"

He almost looked like he'd laugh but Goku probably didn't think bobbing his stomach up and down with rope in it was a good idea. "Best meal known to man kid, it's a damn crime you've never tried it before."

Sure enough, Goku smelled something juicy coming down, the two guys Big Bald sent came back down with those noodles Mutt talked about steaming inside. They put it on a chair next to the table with two little sticks.

"What're these for?" He asked, putting them in-between his fingers and stabbing at the yellow, but nice smelling rope inside the bowl. Before he could eat it, it slipped out onto the bowl again. After a couple more tries, he just growled and tossed the sticks away before grabbing the noodles in a fistful. Mutt was right, he'd never tasted something like it before, the rope itself wasn't much but the little bits of fruit and meat around it sent a shiver down Goku's spine.

In no time at all, he slurped it all down and even licked the bowl clean. They were giving him those funny looks again, except Mutt, but Goku honestly didn't care, with food this good it was like all his problems were gone. After he was done, he sat back in the chair, smiling and rubbing his tummy.

"Man, that was good,..." He said before belching, for some reason, it sounded extra loud inside and it got even more bulging looks from almost everyone there.

"My, my," A voice he hadn't heard before said from the middle of the side hole. It sounded different from the others, not as tough but tougher at the same time, but that's not what got Goku's attention, it was how close it was to Grampa's voice. When its owner finally came down and Goku got a good look at him, it wasn't the only thing similar, he looked old like Grampa did, he was even almost the same hate too but his body was a lot leaner while Grampa was kinda chubby, like Goku. He wore a suit like the others, but grey, like his hair with a blue rope around his neck.

"Mutt has certainly found an interesting young friend here," Everyone in the room stood up, besides Goku and Mutt, stood up then bowed to him. The man didn't react to it, instead smiling at Goku and walking over to where he was sitting. When he got there, he reached out and smiled even wider. "Hei Xiong."

"Son Goku, nice to meet ya!" He shook it.

"Likewise!" He laughed and even bowed a little. "For such a brave young man who's done such a service to me and my most loyal employee, how could it not be a pleasure to make your acquaintance?"

* * *

 **A/N: A bit on the shorter side but with Hei getting his own POV next chapter where much of the coming plot will reveal itself, hopefully you guys don't hold it against me too much. The hardest part of writing this was Goku describing what stairs are, he's never seen them in his life so I can't just write "then he went down the stairs!", I almost delayed the whole chapter because of that. Yes, really.**


	5. Good Night

"Is it always so crazy round here?" Goku asked with a mouthful from the kitchen door with a big bowl of noodles in his hand and some chopsticks in the other. After talking to the boss for a while, he asked everyone down there to leave so he and Mutt could talk. Big Bald was asked to take Goku up to where they cooked the noodles and give him some more. He looked kinda angry at Big Bald when he did it too.

So there he was, sitting on a little chair, watching even more people walking all over the place. He asked Big Bald what this place was and he told him it was a restaurant, basically, people came here to eat if they didn't feel like cooking themselves. Goku thought that was weird at first until he remembered that Grampa used to cook for him a lot too. Inside the kitchen, the food was cooked for the people on the other side and he wasn't kidding, they were cutting, rolling some yellow stuff around, tossing things into metal pots, out of them, burning some stuff a lot but other stuff a little less.

Goku smelled some of the lizards there too, even saw a few of them being cut up and tossed around but the things they were making made his nose crazy. Grampa always told him he could sniff out like a dog, some animal that was good at that he guessed, but it was all kinda too much for him. Which felt wrong, he loved food! Food shouldn't be making him feel kinda confused!

It was a good thing he had some nice, steamy noodles close by to block out the smells. Big Bald didn't teach him how to use the sticks but out of the corner of his eye, Goku spotted a smiling old man with a bald head on top but lots of spiky, grey hair on the back of his head and big, bushy eyebrows holding the sticks with his fingers in a way that made Goku stare. Then he held them the same way and suddenly, he wouldn't have to burn his hand anymore to eat noodles! Before he could thank the old man, though, he went back into the kitchen and disappeared into the mess of people inside it.

By the time Goku was finished with the noodles, the boss was coming back up with a smile. "I see you've mastered the art of chopsticks."

Goku smiled back. "Yup, a nice old man in the kitchen showed me!"

Big Bald got another mean look from the boss, but it didn't last much. "Goku, Hongqi said you were traveling through the forest when he met you, may I ask why?"

"Well I was tryin' to get back home, sir," Goku added the last bit, remembering how the others called him, it sounded polite. "A monster attacked me and I got lost in that flooded forest out back."

"Where is your home?"

"Not sure," Goku scratched his head. "It was somewhere up in the mountains so I just decided to go there."

He almost did that funny, eye bulging look too but stopped himself. "My dear boy, I know we've just met but I would like to invite you to my home, at least for tonight. The mountains you refer to are quite a long journey away and it is the least I can do to repay you for saving my friend."

"You mean that big house outside town?" Goku asked with wide eyes, remembering how big it looked.

"Indeed I do, in fact, we'll even go there in my car!"

"Woah! You've got one of those too?!" He practically jumped out of the chair, Grampa told him about those a couple times, big boxes with wheels on them that could outrun any animal in the world.

"Why don't you come with me and find out?" The boss started walking away from the kitchen, out to where the other people were carrying to the food too, Goku didn't waste a second following him. On the way out, he saw even more folks sitting on tables, some of them looking old, others younger, some so small they had to be carried by those big-chested guys and were crying a lot. They stared at him, then the boss then back at him on the way out, Goku didn't really get why some of them looked kinda scared, the boss seemed real nice.

When they walked out of the restaurant, Goku saw the car. It didn't look like a box, more like a really, really long black and shiny square. Woahing at it, Goku walked up so close he could even see some weird, spiky looking guy staring right back at him. "That's weird,..."

"There's more to see inside," The boss said then pulled a part of it out with a clicking noise. Goku walked up to where he pointed and saw pillows all over the place! Big, yellow pillows that looked big enough to sink into! He didn't waste a second getting in there and doing just that. They made a loud whooshing noise when he sat down but in no time, he was feeling pretty good being there, they were comfier than his bed back home!

The boss sat down next to him, pulling the opening back into the car. Goku noticed it rumble for a second and felt it move, he couldn't help but look around. Usually, when stuff moved under him, it was a wild animal he was ridding or one of the logs he spun around the house.

"Comfortable?" The boss asked from his right side.

"Yeah! It's really soft!"

"Just wait until you try out my guest beds then."

"Beds? You've got more than one?"

He laughed at that. "Of course, quite a few people live in my home, they need someplace to sleep after all."

"I figured, your house looked ginormous from the forest."

"Believe me," His smile widened. "It's quite a bit bigger up close, as you're about to see."

He must've been staring at everything for so long that he didn't even notice they were out of the city. The boss made something in the car wall slid down, giving Goku a pretty good look at Kuchinashi below them, they were driving uphill to the house. It was still amazing how a place like that could exist, he was even starting to doubt the boss' house could top it but boy was he wrong.

The car stopped for a second when they reached the big door then kept moving after a loud whooshing noise from the front stopped and started again when they went inside. He followed the boss out of the car and stared at it from up close, It was taller than any tree he'd ever climbed, even the giant ones in the flooded forest, the only thing bigger than it was Nyoibo that one time he made stretch out for a long time into the air.

"I get why you've got lots of beds now,..." He said, still staring at the place like he wasn't sure it was really. That got a good laugh out of the boss.

"Wait until you see the dining room,... and the food."

He didn't now what that room was for but he got food just fine. There was a pair of huge, wooden doors with a couple mean looking guys standing on both sides, they called the boss sir and opened the door for them both. The inside of the house was super bright, with a whole bunch of candles hanging off the ceiling on some weird, white, spiky looking thing. There were more guys in suits too, and people who kinda reminded him of the ones from the kitchen with the way they were dressed.

"Erm, sir?" He asked, pointing at one of those big-chested guys walking up some stairs.

"Yes, Goku?"

"Why are some people around here puffing their chests so much?"

He didn't answer right away, just staring at him like he didn't know what to say before he chuckled, then laughed, then laughed so hard it started to echo through the house. For some reason, it made the guys in suit stiffen up.

"My boy," He laughed a little more. "Those are women!"

"No way, really?!" Goku stared at a couple more of them passing through, some of them were even wearing the suits like the others. "So that's what they look like,..."

The boss shook his head and laughed a little more before putting his hand on Goku's back. "Yes, that's what they look like. But don't stare at them, especially their chests, it's very impolite."

"I'll try but I don't know how I'll recognize them if I don't."

"Just like anything else, with practice."

He led Goku to another big pair of doors that got opened for them, it led down a really long way with even more doors on the side. The lights were still crazy bright everywhere, making Goku wonder how they kept all the bugs out with so many on. After another pair of doors, they made it to a room even bigger than the one they came in through. In the middle of it was a table, big and wooden that looked almost as long as the car from before.

"There must be room for like, ten people here!"

"Closer to twenty-five, actually," He pulled out a close chair on the end and patted the bottom of it. Goku sat down there while the boss did in the chair to his right. A bunch more of those people in white suits came in, carrying some big, shiny stuff on squares. They were almost enough to block out the smell of food, almost. When they pulled the bowls off, Goku got a sudden, good whiff of the food there that made him almost drool all over before he shut his mouth with a loud thud.

It was meat, he was pretty sure of that, but the way it was cut and cooked made it seem like something from a whole other planet from theirs. The girl who brought the food, bowed to them both and left the room, but not before putting on some shiny stuff on every side. He recognized one of them as a knife but he didn't get the other with spikes on the end.

"Enjoy!" The boss told him with a grin. Goku thought about just eating with his hands until he looked over to the boss next to him, he was stabbing the meat with the spike so his knife could cut through it without sliding off. Just like he did with the old man and the sticks, Goku watched him do it for a second then repeated it.

"Man," He breathed out after chewing on the meat and feeling its taste all over his mouth. "This is even better than the noodles!"

"Don't let Mutt hear you say that."

"I won't if you don't!" Goku giggled and chowed down some more. "By the way, is he gonna be okay? We sorta left him back there."

"Not to worry, Mutt has been taken over to the doctor's clinic where he'll be resting. The injury he got will heal nicely, I'm told."

"That's good, he was gettin' real sick looking on the way here, I was worried he wasn't gonna make it."

"He wouldn't have without you," The boss whipped some goo off his face. "Which I am, as you know, extremely thankful for!"

"Aw it's nothin', my Grampa always said to help someone out!"

More meat was brought in when they were done. "This grandfather of yours, is he back home waiting for you?"

"Nope! He's right here with me!" Goku put the spiky thing and knife down and reached into his pouch pulling Grampa out for the boss to see. "Here he is! Hei Xiong, sir, meet my Grampa, Son Gohan!"

He gave Grampa the same look as when Goku asked him about girls, but he didn't laugh, instead, he smiled and nodded. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mister Son."

"Sorry, he doesn't talk much, not since the monster got him a while ago."

"I sense there's a story behind that."

"Sure is!" For the next while, Goku talked about the night Grampa died, how the monster smashed their home, smashed him but how Grampa got out by becoming an orange, four-star ball. This got more questions from the boss, about his home, how he got there, what Nyoibo could do, did he have more family,... He stopped eating after the second meat came, but Goku kept at it until his belly was getting big again. The boss let him have as much as he wanted, which was super nice of him! He even gave Goku something else he'd never tried before, ice cream. After spending lotsa time in the hot, flooded forest, or swamp, it was pretty nice to eat something to cool him off.

After he ate that and really couldn't eat another bite, the boss took him upstairs to a place called the bathroom. He said it was where people got cleaned up in a big, weird looking corner in the wall with spinny things for hot and cold water along with a big hole called a toilet. It was for pooping and peeing. Goku cleaned up good, then put on some white, but really soft clothes. The boss was waiting for him with a girl who bandaged him back up when he came out and said Nyoibo and Grampa were in a room close by, the room he'd be sleeping in.

The bed was huge, just like everything else in the house with a table close by and a weird looking box on it too. He asked what that was too but the boss said he'd explain it tomorrow, that it was getting late and they all needed some rest from a big day like this. Goku couldn't really any problems with that, almost as soon as he laid down on the bed, he was feeling super sleepy.

After wishing the boss good night, something that felt real similar to doing the same with Grampa back when he was all there, Goku thought how much weirder and crazier things had gotten. But for the first time, it wasn't a bad kind of crazy. The kind you went to sleep at night with a smile on your face.

* * *

His study was situated near the room Son Goku was sleeping in, dimly lit and with a bottle of fine, Atlesian wine on the table waiting for him. Hei first let himself sink into the chair, then poured himself a glass full, letting the fine scent and taste of it jolt a fresh surge of strength through him. The past week was a stressful time, and after speaking to someone as energetic as Son Goku for nearly two hours, paying attention to every fine detail spoke and unspoken was a taxing bit of business, important but taxing nonetheless.

Still, Hei would be lying if he said it wasn't some of the most interesting hours he'd spent in recent memory. _Son Goku,_ He thought with a smirk. _The most guileless man to walk Remnant._

Which wasn't largely an insult to the boy, fools and idiots were among the highest things he loathed in this world, especially when they were part of his organization, quite the opposite actually. After spending decades of his life dealing with liars, cheaters and snakes of all walks of life, meeting someone so naive, so open was quite refreshing, almost surreal even. A person with absolutely no cunning when it came to people, no capacity to lie.

 _I doubt he even knows the meaning of duplicity, probably can't even spell it._

Which made the boy's tales of gargantuan Grimm and grandparents transforming into orbs and magic staffs equal parts fascinating and somewhat troubling. It also meant there was great potential in the boy. Even before meeting him, that idiot Bai did something productive for a change by providing the first piece of evidence pointing to what Son Goku could contribute to the Xiong Crime Family when he knocked the antagonizing oaf across the room. A man many times his size and weight, tossed aside like nothing.

Hongqi, or Mutt as he was called by the others for having the outrageous idea of being actually loyal to the man who paid for his clothes, home, food, and many other things, provided the rest. A story about a boy who effortlessly destroyed a Lacertus type Grimm then spent most of the day carrying a wounded man by leaping across vast distances from tree to tree, all without stopping a single time.

Son's own tales provided further proof, an entire pack of Ursa defeated, even a Beowulf slain in the direst of circumstances, numerous ordinary animals all dangerous in their own right falling to his prowess in battle. The boy was, for all his naivety, someone who could survive the harsh world on his own,... to a point. A fact Hei could respect.

 _Still,_ He stopped himself from being too caught up in musings. _I've already taken one too many risks, and I must be sure what I have in mind does not blow up in my face again._

Yes, for all the things Son could accomplish, Hei would have to carefully see what the boy could and could not do for himself. Too much was riding on another failure after the cargo was lost in the Bog of all places, that disgusting death trap the Grimm had recently made their home, becoming quite active across the southron parts of Mistral. Kuroyuri had already fallen, a first set back in his plans and one which might soon bring all his ambitions to nothing if he wasn't careful.

A sigh came out between his teeth, and a glance at his wristwatch showed how late it was, half past two in the morning. Yes, it was time to rest himself, tomorrow he would see for himself what Son Goku could really do, but somehow, in spite of his recent troubles, he went to sleep that night with a smile regardless.

* * *

 **A/N: Our first non-Goku POV, which is a nice change of pace. Goku is fun to write because of how simple he is meaning I don't need to spend lots of time with elaborate explanations but variety does help spice up the writing process.**


	6. Questions, Answers and Promises

"Goku?" A muffled voice called him in his sleep, knocking on the door. Goku yawned hard enough for his jaw to crack and rubbed his eyes, confused about where he was because everything looked different. The house was way bigger, there was stuff in it he didn't recognize, stuff he did sort of recognize but looked different too, the bed way twice as big as it used to be and comfier too,...

"Goku? Are you up?" The voice asked him again and that's when he remembered everything.

"I'm up boss!" He told him with a giggle, feeling so dumb for forgetting stuff from just yesterday. He jumped out of bed and rushed over to the door, grinning at the smiling Hei Xiong waiting for him on the other side.

"Good day, my boy! I trust you slept well!"

"Yup! Way better than doing it on a tree, for sure!"

"Glad to hear that, I was a bit worried when I tried waking you earlier for breakfast and you didn't answer but I see there was no reason to."

"Guess I musta been more tired than I thought!" He laughed, feeling a little embarrassed. "Say, what's that?"

"Oh, this?" Hei looked at the bundle in his hands before walking in and putting it on the table. "These are some clothes my son used to wear when he was your age, yours have been sent for some fixing up and you can't well walk around naked or in pajamas."

"Well, I sometimes go naked when I'm fishing, it beats dryin' my clothes."

"I'm not surprised," He said, not the least bit weirded out. "But for the sake of my less,... understanding employees, I would advise against doing that here."

"Sure thing, boss!" Goku took the sleeping clothes off, putting on the white pants first. The shirt was longer than his blue one, the bottom of it going down to his crotch. It was green with red around the shoulders and neck and he tied it around his waist with a white belt, the shoes were big and black, going all over his feet. There were even red wrists bands too! "These are really nice! Soft too! But,..."

"What is it?"

"Just... gimme... a second..." His tail popped through the pants, getting a relieved sigh out of Goku. "Sorry for breakin' em, it's just my tail's super sensitive and I don't like it bein' smushed like that."

"It's fine, my boy is too old for them anyway. Shall we have some brunch?"

"Wazzat?" Goku asked, following the boss out of the room and through the house.

"A meal between lunch and breakfast-"

"What?! That exists?!"

Hei actually gave him the funny look for once. "You... didn't know? Given your love of food, I thought it likely."

"Nuh-uh, my Grampa only told me we had three meals!" Goku said, giving the man-in-question on the table a dirty look.

"Maybe he did that on purpose so you wouldn't eat all the time?" The boss smiled the same way Grampa did when he was poking fun at him without being mean about it.

Even though he was a little mad him, Goku slapped his hands together and smirked at his Grampa anyway. "I'm gonna get somethin' t'eat! See ya later!"

They brunched back in the same room as last night, except this time there were a bunch of small things to pick from. He tried out something hot and juicy called soup first, it didn't fill him up much but it tasted real good. Then he ate something called a chicken, a few white crunchy things called cookies. The best out of all of it was dumplings, they had meat, fruit, all sorts of stuff in them.

After that, Goku thanked the boss and was about to go outside for some exercise when he got invited to something called a gym.

It might've been the biggest room in the whole house, going on forever with even more things Goku'd never seen before. From what the boss said, the room was made for training and exercise, letting you do all sorts of things like run really fast in-place, lifting lots of heavy stuff, even a place for sparring. The thing that caught Goku's eye first was a weird table with something like Nyoibo hanging over it, attached to other staffs going straight up on each side.

"What's this?"

"A bench press," The boss said, taking folding his sleeves back onto his elbows, giving Goku a look at some weird black stuff drawn all over his arms. He lied down on the table then put both his hands on the staff with two black circles on the edges. "It works like this!"

He pushed the staff away from the hanging spot and started lifting it up, then down, then up again over and over again, huffing and sweating more and more every time. Goku only stopped him to point out fourteen came after eleven but the boss just smiled at him and explained that it didn't before going on. By the time he was over, he hit around 40 lifts before putting the staff back where it was.

"That's about 50 kilos," He explained, getting off the table and taking a napkin to wipe his face with. "Or about the same weight as a grown pig, I used to be able to lift more but old age is getting to me."

"Just a pig? You can't make it heavier?" Goku said, sounding really disappointed after seeing how cool this bench press could be. The boss just smirked.

"Ask, and you will receive," He started kneeling next to the table, pulling out more and more of those round things and sliding them onto the pole. From the way he was sweating and breathing again, it looked like a whole other exercise just getting ready for the real thing. That was kinda cool about it.

"There," He slid the last one in, making five of those round things on every side of the pole. "If you can make a hundred lifts with 150-kilo weights, I'll personally make sure you eat a big, roasted boar tonight."

That got Goku's butt or back in this case on the table super fast, with a grin, he grabbed on the pole and started going at with the boss counting for him. In no time, he'd done all one hundred and felt pretty good about that board waiting for him tonight.

"So, what else you got, boss?"

For a second he looked a little... off but that friendly smile came back as he led him to the rest of the stuff there. He practiced with more bench presses, some of them made to exercise every muscle in the body like the arms, back, legs,... Pretty cool things that got Goku pretty hungry and worked out by the time it was over.

They didn't go back to the dining room, instead, the boss told the people working for him to bring over lunch to them. It was nice, juicy fish this time, not big ones but lots and lots of small ones that added up to a nice meal. It as in the middle of finishing up his second pile that Goku thought of something when another employee came over with another one.

"Say, boss."

"Yes?" He answered with a mouthful.

"How do you have so much stuff? You don't have to go huntin' for food or anything!"

"That's a bit of a long story," He gulped down another fish. "Way too long and complicated, but in summary, my siblings and I-"

"Siblings?"

"Brother and sister, the three of us grew up sort of like you, Son. Having to forage for food, surviving day by day," He smiled and gave Goku a tap with his elbows. "Although, we couldn't fight like you do."

"Woah! Really? That must've been tough for you guys!"

"It was, but we managed, met someone who... broadened our horizons and eventually, through many years of even harder work, got what we have today," His eyes narrowed a little. "Not that there weren't people out there to stop us, mind you."

"Why'd someone try to stop you?" Goku asked, so interested he actually forgot to chow down on more fish.

"Because of power, my young friend. When someone wants to attain more of it, they attract challengers, and where there are challenges there is conflict."

"My Grampa says if you never get challenged, you'll just be stuck-in-place forever. That sounds pretty boring to me."

The boss smiled then, but it looked kind of... crooked? His narrow, mean eyes didn't help it look any prettier. "Believe me, Son, after you've faced a certain amount of challenges, you'll grow very, very sick of them,... no matter who or what they come from...You'll just want everything to get into place for peace of mind."

They didn't say anything for a little while, not until the boss sighed and finally looked back to his old self. "Ah, don't listen to me, my friend. I'm old and sometimes too bitter for my own good."

"S'alright," Goku laughed. "Even Grampa had off days every now and then."

They finished lunch pretty fast after then with Goku going back to exercising, this time on the treadmill, the thing you ran in place for, putting it at max speed. The boss didn't join in, saying he got his training in for the day and then some. Instead, he talked while Goku kept running about all sorts of things. The boss told him a little more about himself, his sister in another place Atlas and his son in Vale, his brother used to live in the other one but died a while ago. Goku asked him what an Atlas and Vale were and the boss told him about the world some more.

Then they had some boar and went off to bed, which ended up being their routine for the next few days. Eating, exercising and talking. The boss told him lots of things about anything he wanted to know. About the place, they lived on, Remnant which was weird cause Grampa called it Earth a couple of times but the boss explained that places usually have lots of names that change over time.

He learned about those placed he mentioned like Vale and Atlas and Vacuo and Mistral, what a kingdom was and got really angry when he talked about Mistral, the place Kuchinashi was. About how the people in-charge were bad and mean, always trying to hurt him and other people trying to make it without the main guys telling them what to do.

Goku couldn't blame him, forcing people to do stuff they didn't want to even if hurt them was the kind of stuff that made him want to punch someone. That got a good laugh out of the boss.

The stuff that got him the most interested was about Huntsmen and Huntresses, and the monster, the Grimm.

"Around the world, you'll find many exceptional individuals who possess powers most men don't, the ability to outrun any animal, lift impossibly heavy things, amongst many others. In many ways, they're some of the most powerful people in the world."

"They live in the Kingdoms, right?" Goku asked while lifting 300 kilos on the bench press.

"And many other places outside them, sometimes fighting people or other's of their profession but usually the Grimm."

"The Grimm," He let the name roll off his tongue. "Why're they so mean, boss?"

"Now that is a question many have asked but none have answered," He wiped his face after doing a few laps on the treadmill close by. "Some think they were created by a higher to destroy us, others that they're animals twisted by some horrible force we can't understand, there are just as many theories about their existence as there are types of Grimm. One thing is for certain, they **will** kill you if you don't kill them first."

Goku knew that pretty good, from what they almost did to him and what they actually did to Grampa. That reminded him of something he'd forgotten about in all this stuff that's been happening to him for the past few days: their home. It was still out there, waiting for them to come back. Suddenly, Goku didn't feel so good anymore.

Putting the press away, Goku turned to the boss. "Hey, sir?"

"Yes?"

"I think I'm gonna go back home, now."

The boss didn't say anything, his eyes widening a little before he nodded, looking a little sad. "I thought you might say that the shine of this place was bound to wear off sooner or later."

"Don't get me wrong! I really like bein' here but,... my house is out there, and I don't wanna just abandon it."

He bobbed his head a couple of times then actually smiled, that made Goku feel a little better. "Then, perhaps you and I can help each other."

"Huh?"

"You want to return home, yes?" Goku nodded. "Well, I have something I want too, something very important to me that I think only you can help bring to me."

"Really?"

"Really, I want to get this back as much as you'd want to get your grandfather back if he was left at your home with no one there to protect him."

Goku's mouth almost hit the floor, the idea of that happening was just too awful to even think about! And it did! To the boss of all people! "Don't worry! I'll get it back for you! I promise!"

"Slow down," He laughed and walked up to Goku, putting a hand on his back. "Your enthusiasm is appreciated, but first I'll have to explain some things to you and we'll need Mutt for this as well."

"Is he better?"

"Very much so, the doctor has made good strides in healing his injury and he'll to be well enough for him to assist you."

"You sure that's smart? He got hurt real bad last time."

"Last time he didn't have someone as strong as you to protect him.

Goku thought about that for a second then nodded, it made sense after all.

"But before we discuss any of that, you have to promise me one thing," The boss kneeled in front of him, looking more serious than Goku'd ever seen him and just a little scary. "What we discuss, you do not tell a single soul to besides me or Mutt. This stays between the three of us, if I cannot do this, then I cannot ask you to help me."

"I can do that!" Goku smiled and nodded, then he took his pinky finger out. "I'll even pinky swear on it!"

The boss smiled back, all the scariness from a second ago totally gone and put his pinky over Goku's. "Pinky swear it is."

* * *

"So, the kid's helping us."

"That he is," Hei confirmed as he sat in his desk via Scroll, observing a map of the surrounding area sprawled across it. Goku and he spent the rest of the afternoon as though the conversation hadn't happened, dining and conversing more about Huntsmen, Huntresses and even Aura, what little Hei knew about that particular subject. The boy was asleep now, his belly full and his mind drifting back to his home.

Out of curiosity, Hei took a glance at where it could potentially be. From what Goku told him, it was likely somewhere to the southwest of Kuchinashi, at the mount range stretching from there all the way to the other side of Anima. A hostile, impenetrable land rife with Grimm infested lands and anyone foolish enough to live there. Such as Son's Gohan and Goku, though, if what Goku told of his grandfather was true, then it may have been a small wonder the older man was able to fend off even the Grimm for as long as he did.

"You sure he'll be able to keep it a secret?" Hongqi asked, voicing not unfounded concern. The boy spoke openly about everything he was and what he'd been through. Still, Hei knew the boy wouldn't disappoint him in this respect, at least.

"Quite sure, I've gotten to know the boy well these past few days and can attest to his character as well as power. He can outlift, outrun and outlast anyone working for us and from what you've told me, outfight them as well. He will make a fine addition to our organization."

"I hope so, boss, we can't afford another mess like last time."

 _No, no we cannot,_ Hei silently agreed with his most trusted lieutenant, whatever genuine good mood the boy had injected in him evaporating instantaneously as he recalled the sordid mess that brought them here. Like the worst of problems, it started out so promising. His sister's branch of the Family, through an informant within the Schnee Dust Company, informed him of a collaboration between the Schnee's and the military of Atlas, a cooperation resulting in special, prototype Dust powered bombs capable of bringing down a three-story house on top of the three-story house under it.

The Dust contained within these alone would amass a fortune on the black market, but coupled with these bombs which could easily be sold in parts or perhaps repurposed into other variants proved a chance to tempting to pass up. It was the one time he spoke favorably of his homelands close relations with Atlas, the precise reason why Mistral would be the first of the other Kingdoms to get a piece of this technology.

What proceeded next was a complex operation, involving bribery, extortion, positioning loyal men at the precise positions over the span of several months. The risk of discovery was perpetually great, and potentially catastrophic, for if anything went back to the Family, Atlas, Mistral and the Schnee's would all come bearing down on them in retaliation. Yet when the time came for those weapons to leave their facility and head for Haven, they had a man on the inside ready to fly it off course to Kuroyuri where the rest of the crew were eliminated, the airship destroyed and the Dust bombs ready for transportation to him.

Then, on the very night, his team of expensive to acquire but quality Huntsmen and Huntresses were about to leave, those detestable Grimm laid siege to Kuroyuri, destroying it and killing half of his men along with most of the population. The news of this catastrophe sent him into such a rage he almost beat one of his own men to death and it didn't leave him until a surviving Huntress confirmed her escape from the village and arrival to Kuchinashi.

He never heard from her again, forcing him to spend over two weeks sending Mutt and a select few others drudging through those insufferable swamps in search of the device. Costing him even more men and almost his most loyal one as well, were it not for Son Goku's timely rescue. Now it was time to see if he would save them again, and perhaps do even more in the future.

* * *

 **A/N: So begins the Hunt for the Bombs! Don't know if I'll make that the official name of the arc but that's the gist of it. The exposition was really tough this time around as I didn't just want to skim through everything but I also didn't want to bog everyone down with "Goku asks a question, Hei answers it!". So, I focused on what I thought was best, hopefully, it was the right call.**

 **For those wondering if there's a visual for Goku's suit in this chapter, you can find it on the Twitter of Dragon Garrow Lee.**


	7. Boat Trip

"Now Goku, what is step one?"

"Step one is sleep until it starts gettin' bright out, boss!"

"Step two?"

He pointed to the drawing of the house then ran his finger over to the spot they were supposed to go. "Mutt and I walk from the house to the... boat, right?"

"Correct, and then?"

"Then I let Mutt drive, and I keep an eye out for Grimm!"

"What Grimm are we gonna run into?" Mutt asked him next.

"Erm,... Wait! The lizard and the ghost, right? The lizard eats people and ghost goes into stuff!"

"Show me the way."

He ran his finger over the map again, from the end of the town than across the blue lines showing the water, stopping at the spot where the swamp stopped, the Bog.

"Good," The boss smiled. "And what are you supposed to do when you get there?"

"Grab a big box lookin' thing from the Bog," Goku tapped the middle of the place, then ran his finger back to the swamp. "Then get it back to the boat and drive over here!"

"Finally, what are you, under no circumstances, allowed to do?"

"Break the box open!"

"Exactly," Mutt gave Goku a friendly pat on the back. "Keep all this in mind, and it'll go off without a hitch!"

"You bet I will!"

"I'm glad to hear that, Son," The boss smiled at him before checking that watch thing on his wrist. "It's almost eight in the evening, why don't you clean yourself up and head to bed? You'll need plenty of rest to get up early tomorrow."

"What about you, Mutt?" He looked over the bearded man standing next to him. "Don't you gotta go to sleep too?"

"Me and the boss have a couple more things to go over, nothing you need to worry about!"

"Okay! See ya guys later!" He went out of the room, giving the two of them a goodbye wave and made for the bathroom. He took off the clothes the boss gave him and tossed it into the box with the window on the door before hopping into the shower. "Hm, might go for a cold one tonight!"

The water sent a nice shiver down his back as he started getting to work rubbing the dirt off him with the soap and the goo you put on it. During the whole thing, Goku kept repeating the steps for the plan out loud, almost loud enough to be heard over the water. Past couple of days, they'd been going over it a lot, meaning he didn't get as much time for the gym like he used to. The boss was pretty strict about Goku knowing the whole job by heart so he had to. It was pretty tough for a while, he'd never learned stuff like this before. It was always things he did with his body but he couldn't do that here, just remember words.

The boss even looked like he might've gotten angry at him for a second yesterday before smiling and giving him an idea. "Try to think of it as... a martial arts sequence."

"Sequence?"

"Yes, remember how you know when to follow up a kick with a punch? Try to do the same with the words, get a feel for what's supposed to come after each one! If you want, you can even repeat it out loud or walk while doing it to help your concentration."

Which is what Goku did and boy did it help to move his body around sort of with the words. After their talk just now, he was pretty sure he got it right but if what the boss said about it being close to martial arts, practicing would only make him even better at it! Once he felt nice and clean all over, he put a towel over his crotch and legs then ran over to his room where his pajamas, fixed up old clothes, Nyoibo and of course, Grampa, were waiting for him.

"Hey! Grampa!" He slapped his hands together. "I finally got the plan down! Me and Mutt're gonna go over and get the boss his important box! Then he'll help us get home!"

He put his sleep clothes on and hopped onto the bed. "Cya tomorrow Grampa!"

* * *

 **8 Hours Later**...

The second he heard a knock on the door, Goku was jumping outta his bed, shouting. "I'm up!" He tossed the pajamas off, put his old, fixed up clothes back, put Grampa in his belt pouch then ran for the door, grabbing Nyoibo on the way there and opened it with a surprised looking Mutt on the other side.

"Damn, I didn't think you'd be this energetic,..." He said, drinking that hot, brown stuff the boss told him was called coffee. Mutt wasn't wearing the black suit anymore. His pants were big and brown, so were some things covering his hands. The shirt he had on was like Goku's, no sleeves and white. "I take it you slept well?"

"Yup!" They walked down the stairs where the boss was waiting for them with a big, brown, square looking thing next to him. Goku smiled and waved at him, "Mornin' boss!"

"Good morning to you too, Goku," The boss smiled back. "I'm happy to see you energetic for the trip."

"Yeah, I've been cooped up in this house fer so long I wanna go out." He asked the boss a couple times to go see the city but the boss said no, that he had people who wanted to hurt him there and they might go after Goku for being his guest. When Goku said he'd just beat em up, the boss laughed and said he liked the idea of that but he didn't want to risk it. So, Goku listened to him and stayed in. Although, he was gonna take a look at it again when they went to the docks.

"I know you've felt a little trapped here but I believe this little adventure should more than help with that."

"Hopefully things don't get too exciting," Mutt said, picking the big brown thing off the ground and putting it on his back. He straightened his back then bowed to the boss. "But regardless of what happens, we'll get it done boss, no matter what."

He gave Goku a weird, side look before moving to the door. Goku followed him out but not before slapping his hands together at the boss like he did for Grampa. "See ya later boss!"

The boss' smile got bigger and he nodded. "I have no doubt of that, Goku."

They made their way through the big open yard of the house with Mutt talking to the guy standing there for a second before the door slid open, with the house being on a hill over the city, Goku got a really good and pretty look at the town all over again. It looked way less busy than the last time, with even the big candles outside turned off along with lots of other lights. There was barely anyone out too, making the place look abandoned. But it sure didn't make him stare at the ginormousness of it all. It looked really cool thanks to the big, orange sky above.

But pretty soon, they walked down the hill and into the trees, making Goku lose sight of the town the farther they went in. The dock they talked about was a big line of wooden floor going toward the swamp water with a bunch of smaller, wooden or metal looking things tied to it. Theirs was pretty big, bigger than all the other ones. It was all made of metal, with three black seats on it and a big, bladed thing taller and wider than Goku himself in the back.

Mutt tossed the brown thing on one of the back seats and he sat on the top one. Goku hopped on after him, tapping the thing with Nyoibo. "It sounds tough."

"That it is, and more importantly, pretty fast too." Mutt reached in the brown thing and started pulling out pieces of something metal looking.

"What's that?"

"This?" He smirked. "This is my stick."

Goku's eyebrow went up until Mutt finished setting the whole thing up, that's when he recognized it. "Oh! It's one of those gun things!" The boss told him about those two, how they made little explosions happen inside to fire even smaller metal things to hurt or kill from far away. He even let Goku try one in a place to shoot them called a firing range, it was loud and looked neat but Goku'd honestly just punch, kick or smash with Nyoibo.

"Right you are, it might not smash a Grimm like yours, but it'll help keep me alive out here," He nodded at Goku. "Along with you, my special little bodyguard friend."

Goku giggled at that and set himself down, facing forward. Mutt started doing something making weird noises before a louder one drowned them out. When he turned around to see what's up, he saw the blades in the back spinning faster and faster, so fast Goku felt dizzy just trying to watch them. Then he fell forward and bonked his head against one of the seats when the boat started moving all of a sudden.

"You okay?" Mutt asked, trying not to smile.

"Yeah, I've had worse than this, what'd you do?"

"Started the boat, think of it... like a car, except for water."

"It's pretty loud, lotsa things out there are gonna go after us."

"Don't have a choice kid," Mutt's smile was gone, he had a pretty mean look on instead. "The alternatives are too slow or too much of a pain in the ass to bother with, we're just gonna have to deal with whatever gets thrown at us."

Which wasn't a lot really by the time real morning started turning around, they'd seen some of those big lizards the boss called alligators floating around or sleeping but no Grimm. Goku couldn't see or smell any of em around, but he did like feeling a nice breeze in his face from the boat trip, and the smell of the forest and animals around. Being stuck in the house bugged him more than he thought.

No Grimm around is what bugged Mutt, though, he looked really sweaty the farther they went in, looking for trouble everywhere like something would jump out and eat him. But, that wasn't wrong really, besides the plan, him and the boss told Goku about the Grimm they'd be fighting. The ones who looked like the green lizards were called Lacertus, they were big and fast and jumped out from the water to attack stuff outta nowhere, eating lots of people before they could even fight back!

The ghost, or Geist, one he didn't get. It went into stuff and made it attack you, so a tree could try to hit you or rock would try to squash you. But Goku didn't think that one sounded too scary, he could break trees and rocks real easy and the Grimm doing it wasn't too strong when you took all its stuff away. The gator one's jumping at them outta nowhere was a bigger deal if you asked him.

That almost happened to the halfway through when they stopped for a breakfast break. One of the gator Grimm spotted them from under the water and if Goku hadn't felt it coming by dipping his tail, it would've flipped the whole boat over. It tried to bite him instead and flew right over it when Goku ducked out of the way, pushing Mutt down with him. When it came back up, Goku rammed Nyoibo in its mouth and killed it same as the first one.

After that, they kept a real good eye out on the water and Mutt never let go of the long gun in his hand. The next time they stopped, it was around noon from what Goku could see of the sun through the thick branches. From what Goku could see, the water finally stopped where they landed the boat, but it still looked kinda wet with big puddles all over the place.

"This is the place," Mutt said, doing some stuff with his gun. "Be extra careful here, Goku. The second you think somethings off, go for the kill and don't stop."

"Okay!" He checked Grampa in the pouch again then jumped off the boat after Mutt. The forest was a lot less thick there and getting smaller the farther they walked and the ground kept going up and down with lots of little hills all over the place. A little way in, Goku's nose picked up on a smell he'd... sort of never felt before. It was like bad meat, the kind left over when an animal left bones lying around but it wasn't exactly like it either.

They were going up another small hill, passing by a couple of trees when the smell was almost right next to them. "What is that- Oh man!"

He yelled, jumped back and almost knocking Mutt over. It was a person... Half of one. He'd recognize the black suit Mutt and the boss' guys wore anywhere but it was messed up, the whole bottom half was gone and flies were all over what was left. Goku looked around when he picked up more smells like it and saw two more bodies down the hill, all of them missing... parts too. Arms, legs,... a head for one,... He'd seen a dead person before when he found Grampa smashed to bits, but he was just kinda a read... smear on the ground, these guys, you could tell these were people before...

"Are-are these-"

"My team from before, yeah," Mutt said, sounding creepily calm about it and staring down some weird tube thing on his gun. "The Geist did this, smashing us to bits with rocks and trees,... Only reason I got away long enough was by being at the back of the group and running like crazy to the boat."

"You left em?!" Goku asked, his jaw hanging open big enough to fit a tiger through. "Why didn't you fight?!"

"Kid," He let out a long breath, twisting his mouth like he was eating something gross. "If I stayed I'd be dead and the boss would've sent even more guys to die after us until someone told him where the box is. This way, something good came out of it. Sides, not all of us are as tough as you."

Goku didn't like that made sense for him, he'd run away too when that wolf Grimm cornered him but that was only because he was tired and hungry, he would've fought it if he could've. Mutt didn't and just ran away,... but if he didn't do that, more would've died later,...

"There it is," Mutt said and kneeled next to him, putting his gun close to Goku's face. "Look through the scope." He pointed at the tube thing.

When he did, Goku saw on a bit of ground surrounded by water, the box the boss sent them after. It looked grey and kinda small actually, about as tall as Goku's back and a little wider. Right next to it, he saw another body, dressed totally different from the boss' guys... From what was left of it. There was a big metal thing sticking on the ground next to it, one of those swords he'd seen in one of the bosses' rooms.

The monster who killed everyone wasn't anywhere though.

"The monster isn't here."

"Yeah, and I don't like it at all," Mutt moved the scope away. "This freak was as subtle as a bomb before, but if it starts playing games with us we're in trouble."

"Bait'll work, animals can't resist it," Goku started walking towards it when Mutt grabbed his shoulder.

"What're you-"

"You told me you can't fight it, but I can, if it tries t'smash me I'll be ready to kick its butt!"

Mutt's twisted mouth bent even more and he looked like the night they met, hurting a lot. But that didn't stop him from nodding. "Before you go," he took something outta his pocket, the map they used to practice with! "See where we are now? Just going straight west from here and you'll get back in no time, whatever happens, don't get lost and don't lose the box, got it?"

Goku knew why he was doing it, in-case the Grimm got him. He took the map, nodded and stuffed it next to Grampa in the pouch before heading out. The puddles were pretty big the more he climbed down, so big he had to start jumping over them or using Nyoibo for it, the ground was kinda hard to walk on and sticking to his shoes. After a final, stomping jump, he landed on the patch of ground.

He walked in his combat stance, keeping Nyoibo's top part pointing outside with the back half held next to his side. The smell was bad here too and Goku had to fight the urge of pinching his nose shut to block it out. Instead, he focused on everything else, sight, sound, smell, feel, and his fighting instinct, all his senses like Grampa taught him. But there wasn't anything there, just a dead body, flies and the box.

With a fast grab, he took it, holding it with some little black handle on the top. But before he jumped away, he noticed something shine in his eye from the ground. "Huh?" He looked over to where it was coming from and noticed another box, way, way smaller, buried in the grass but pretty close in looks to the bigger one. "Guess I'll take this one, too." He put the small one under his arm, using that same hand to hold the big one and started jumping back over to Mutt. He got there without a hitch.

"Got it! Found nother one too!"

"Another one?" Mutt said, checking the boxes Goku put down, he took another something outta his pocket, a pointy looking thing that stuck into the box. He looked kinda nervous doing it but it went away when the box opened and he smiled. "Good," He let out a long breath. "It's all here."

"What is it-" Goku tried to check it out but Mutt slammed the box closed before he could.

"Something only for me and the boss to see," He ignored the angry look Goku was giving him and took both of boxes off the ground. "Now let's go, if we head on back we'll be back just in time for a nice, juicy bear."

"B-bear?!" Goku mumbled out, his anger totally going away at the idea of chowing down on some cooked bear meat. "What're we waitin' for?!"

"Hold on! Don't let your guard down on account of the job being half done! Stay sharp and celebrate when we're safe, okay?"

"Oh, yeah, right," Goku giggled, scratching the back of his head before remembering something else. "Hey," He pointed at the bodies lying around. "What about them? We gonna come back for em?"

"We'll see Goku, now come on, I don't wanna stay here anymore!" He gave Mutt another mean look from the back but didn't say anything, he just followed after silently. Nothing attacked them on the way back either, even when the boat started being loud again. Goku sat forward again with Mutt steering, his free hand on the big box and not his gun anymore.

"We'll eat have lunch halfway back," Mutt shouted louder than the engine noise. "Hope you're not sick of-"

The engine went crazy all of a sudden, letting out a noise so horrible Goku felt like someone was scrapping big rocks inside his head. That wasn't the worst part, the boat suddenly stopping and almost flipping over was. It was good Mutt saw the boxes falling outta the seats, he grabbed them just before they hit the water.

"They're okay!" He shouted above the loud engine. "Go check the engine!"

"Okay!" Goku answered and walked to the back where he saw the spinning thing covered with some slimy, green and wet grass all over. Pretty soon, it stopped moving totally. When he tried pulling it out, more of the grass shot up from the water and grabbed his arm like a snake. "What theAAAAAHHH!"

The grass moved so fast he couldn't even try to hold still, sending him flying across the water and smashing him right into a tree. "Ow!" Goku shouted before swinging at the grass with Nyoibo still tied around his arm, smashing right through it in a cut. Then he noticed something in the water, a big, yellow glow getting bigger every second.

"What is going on-" Mutt shouted before the boat went almost over again, he was still holding onto the boxes and just barely stopped himself from going overboard, but his gun and brown thing weren't so lucky. When he saw what was coming outta the water, his mouth almost hit the floor, and so did Goku's.

It was huge, way bigger than Goku's whole house and as wide as the bosses' car, if not more! It was totally covered with that wet, green swamp grass with big rocks and tree branches sticking out all over the place, making it look even bigger and creepier. In the middle of that whole mess, he saw the Geist, a big, bone white mask just like all the other ones, with only one eye staring right at him.

But the thing that got to Goku was the fact he couldn't smell it like the others, and it didn't even growl like them either. It just pushed out something that was way too close to looking like a persons arm and went for the kill.

* * *

 **A/N: Next time, on GRWBY! The epic showdown you never knew you wanted but are totally hyped for: Kid Goku vs Swamp Thing (sort of). Man, this was a tough one, I went through three different versions of this chapter before finally finishing it with this final iteration. Hopefully, it makes up for the lackluster Chapter 6.**

 **Also, I'll be answering some fan questions down below.**

 **KongKing94**

 **So, when is Goku going to use the Kamehameha? -** Goku has never seen the Kamehameha, he can't use it. Could I create some Aura-fuelled approximation of it for him later? Maybe but I'd rather he just make a signature move that fits with the RWBY setting.

 **Odin's Eye**

 **So, will Goku get an Aura and Semblance with all his cannon powers later down the road? -** Goku will use Aura as his primary power source and will attain a Semblance later.

 **Loki's Tongue**

 **Now I have to ask, Will Goku get an actual education? -** That would be spoiling things.

 **Now for my second suggestion. I would love it if Goku gained all his powers in Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z(including the Films and Video Games and spin-offs), Dragon Ball GT(Super Saiyan 4 was awesome and the fact that the Dragon Balls had a dark side if being overused was awesome and I will fight you on this!), and Dragon Ball Super but at a much younger age just to give the world real defenders and so Goku can show the world the full power of the Saiyans and give Beerus a bit more of a hard time before unlocking the powers of a Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue.**

This isn't going to happen and it's not possible: Goku, his house, Nyoibo, and the inert four-star ball are the only things sent over, there is no Roshi or Kami or Beerus or Baby or anything else from DB besides those things. Goku cannot even begin to approach the same level of power he had in DB Earth, much less get powers from training he has no access to anymore. This is a story about Goku and his life on Remnant, dealing with things of that setting as an alien to it, whether he knows it or not, it's not a story about Goku turning RWBY into a DB/Z/GT/Super knockoff where Ultra Instinct Ruby fights Jiren.


	8. Outside the Box

"C'mon, c'mon...!" Mutt quietly snarled, trying his best to cut and grab through the swamp gunk out of the propellors as fast as possible. Easier said than done, it was absolutely everywhere, even the thinnest looking grass took ten more knife cuts more than it should've. His arm muscles were straining from the effort, not that he could afford to stop, it was either cut through and get the boat back running or swimming with a damn briefcase for the next couple of days.

Needless to say, the choice was pretty obvious, which didn't make the circumstances any less terrifying.

The Geist with all the giant swamp gunk and alligator sized boulders for hands was bad enough, but with Goku jumping around all over the damn place, whacking it with that stick of his and the two of them knocking over trees like game pieces, it was a nightmare just keeping his balance with the water going up and down all over the place. His gun was already at the bottom of the lake, along with all the extra weapons he brought along in his backpack, meaning the second this Grimm stopped ignoring him, he might as well cut his own throat if Goku didn't get to him in time.

Checking behind him, Mutt saw Goku take another swing, cutting through the big swamp grass making its left arm before it started growing it back with even more gunk. Goku went back to defense and jumped out of the way of another arm swing. Something he couldn't keep up forever, the Grimm were pretty relentless, even the smartasses who should know better, when they thought they had you by the nutsack. This creep who wasn't even using a real body to tire out wasn't gonna stop until Goku was dead. And then Mutt himself.

Well, actually, there was one thing he could do to actually defend himself, something that would let him kill the Geist pretty easily in fact, the package in the briefcase. All he needed to die was open it up, get the detonator out of the smaller one and throw it at the monsters general direction. Geist couldn't take over things with Dust in them, it was probably the only reason it wasn't using the bombs itself against them.

But whatever practicality the idea had, the boss' orders took first place: he was to get those bombs back home no matter what it cost, even the kid's life. He just hoped Goku wouldn't screw up to put him in a position like that...

* * *

"Woah!" Goku jumped out of the way of the ghost's arm swing, landing at the bottom of another tree just in time to stop and notice a big rock making a fist for the monsters weird, swampy body. A huge chunk of the tree he was on was smashed away with the upper half making a big splash and wave when it hit the water. Out in the back, he could see the boat shake left and right with Mutt trying to keep his balance on it.

The ghost attacked again with the boulder hand and this time Goku was gonna see what the rock part of it was really made of! Pulling his arms back, Goku shouted: "Extend!" then swung his arms, making the rock and Nyoibo smash into each other. He'd seen Nyoibo break through lotsa rocks like those no problem. Except this time, instead of breaking into tons of little pieces, it just kinda got dented and fell back into the water.

Jumping away from another gunk arm swipe over to a big branch, Goku used the speed he got from spinning himself around it to fly through the air and real close to the monster. Then, with a smirk, he let it have a taste of long Nyoibo! "Take this!" The longer staff smashed right into its shoulder and cut it in half. With the big boulder still there, it sank right away. When he landed on a patch of ground close by, he attacked again, this time cutting into the chest before hitting something hard halfway through.

"Huh?" Goku said before the grass went all over Nyoibo and started pulling something fierce. "Oh no, you don't!"

He grit his teeth and kept pulling the other way, but the Grimm was strong and the ground wasn't good for that sort of tugging contest. But he wasn't gonna let them have Grampa's gift to him, just the idea of that monster stealing it right in front of him made Goku temper go crazy. It didn't help him out when the monsters second arm took another swing, smacked him across the face and made him let go off Nyoibo.

"No!" He shouted after Nyoibo got sucked into the monster, even jumping into the water to try and get it back. Swimming as fast as he could, Goku tried grabbing it a few times when it slowed down. He didn't even think it was a trap before the monsters gunk shot out of the back and started wrapping itself all over him. They gunk got his arms first, forcing them really far apart and hoisting him off the water.

"Hey! Lemme go! And give me back Nyoibo!" Goku shouted, trying to kick the vines away with his legs or snap it with his tail but it didn't work. The monster's gunk swing to the left and smacked him face first into a tree, then another one, and another one, and another until Goku felt sick from all the smacking and spinning around. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."

Before he could puke or try to break free, the monster started shrieking all of a sudden, it was so bad Goku felt like something sharp was being jammed into his ears. That wasn't the weirdest part too, the Grimm started going crazy, dropping him into the water and shaking all over the place, its body making weird shapes where it sometimes had five arms then no arms and a big, almost ball-shaped body.

Then it started shooting stuff outta itself, like more gunk, grass, branches and even the big boulders it used to protect itself or attack him. One of em, almost as big as the boat flew so far it landed somewhere close to Mutt, Goku heard him shout a mean word when it did. Goku wasn't really sure what to think about this until it tossed Nyoibo a long way off smack dab into the middle of a tree, the same way he threw away something gross when it got in his hand.

"Hey! Don't throw my stuff!" He shouted at the Grimm then swam to the closest tree so he could jump from it over to Nyoibo. By the time he got there and yanked it out, the monster was gone. Or it looked like it was anyway. Getting a second to breathe, Goku smelled out where Mutt was and noticed how turned around he'd gotten from the fighting, cause Mutt smelled pretty far away, and get farther too.

He was gonna try and shout after im but a big, glowing thing from the water stopped him, the same kinda glow the rest of the monsters stuff had. "Uh oh!" With a jump, he dodged the rock and was aiming for another tree when the one he just left started shaking like crazy behind him. Goku didn't even get a chance to cut through it with Nyoibo in mid-air when the ghost pulled the whole tree right on top of him.

Getting smashed in the back of the head by a whole tree hurt lots more than he thought it would but he didn't have time to complain about that. The second he hit the water, more of that crazy gunk came back and started going for his arms and legs again. He attacked all over the place before the tree from before flew back up and bonked him over the head again. The second he felt dizzy, the vines came all over the place, grabbing his arms and legs this time and pulling him down into the water.

More of the gunk covered him the farther down he went, pretty soon he couldn't do more than waggle his tail helplessly or shake his head back and forth. To the side, he could see Nyoibo sinking, real close to his hand but feeling like a million miles away when he couldn't move. Even him holding his breath for a long time, which he could do, wasn't gonna matter much if he couldn't get out and kill this monster.

Attacking with his tail wasn't gonna work, Goku thought he was super lucky it didn't grab onto it or else he'd lose all his strength. But there was something else he could try that worked a little while ago: his teeth! Craning his neck, Goku opened his mouth for a whole lotta disgusting swamp water and bit down on the vines covering his left arm, the closest one to Nyoibo. With a fast jerk, he ripped all the gunk to shreds then just barely managed to snatch his Grampa's gift to him in the last second before it sank.

With a big swing, he cut the rest of the vines up and grinned at the monster. _Now take this!_ Before it could try and tangle him back up again, Goku pulled his arm back and threw Nyoibo at it right through the water. He coulda sworm he saw the Grimm's eye go big, and bulging, kinda like that funny look the boss' guys gave him before it went right through it!

It started shaking again, but then it melted, just like all the rest. Grabbing Nyoibo, Goku swam back up and took a big mouth full of air. "That's what you get for tryin' t'steal my stuff!"

After taking a second to get his breathing back to normal, Goku started smelling around for Mutt but couldn't feel his scent anywhere! "Mutt! Where are you?!" He didn't like that nobody answered him, so he climbed to a tree and started jumping to the last spot he sorta remembered Mutt's smell being. When he got there, there was nothing around. He knew Mutt didn't get sunk, his smell was still around when the monster last attacked, so where was he?

That was when Goku picked up on something weird jammed into a tree hole and squinted before recognizing it. "One of the boxes!"

It was the small one, looking a little banged up but still in one piece. "Musta gotten tossed outta the boat when the rock almost smashed into it. I should get it back to the boss!"

Putting the handle thing of the box in his teeth, Goku climbed all the way to the top of the tree, getting a good look at where the sun was now. It was a little over noon from what he could see, almost lunch time but more importantly, he knew where the west was and like Mutt told him, just keep going west and he'd get back to the boss in no time! But first, lunch and he was pretty sure he saw one of those gators swimming close by...

* * *

 **Two Days Later**

"Almost there, just a little more!" Goku laughed, jumping from tree to tree and getting excited about seeing the boss again. He was gonna get to give him back the whole package and walk around the town for once! Plus, it would be really nice to eat something other than gators, the first three or four are fine, but ten? That got a little same-y after a while.

Night time was starting to come around so he was trying to hurry it up even more. It was crazy how a boat was so much faster than him, Goku wondered just how many fast stuff was out there like that. Was there a fast Grimm that could get in a few hours what took him over two days? That'd be crazy if it existed!

Speaking of Grimm, they were giving him some company on the trip back, every while he'd run into one of those gator Grimm and had to fight em off but it wasn't that big of a deal, it helped make going back less boring. As long as they weren't freaks like the ghost one,... One of em was close by just when he started feeling the smell of the city off in the distance, around the place where they took the boat out of. It was a little smaller than the usual ones but Goku knew they all fell for the same trick. He'd have to tell the boss about them being this close to town.

Landing on the ground, Goku let it come for him and jammed Nyoibo in its mouth and gave it a nice poke! "Extend!" Sure enough, it went right through the monsters head, he expected it to go down right there but it was a little crazier than the others, actually managing to lunge at him and knock the little box he carried for the boss outta his hand, snapping it open.

"Hey!" He shouted, running over to the box. "Watch it!"

Once he picked it up, it snapped open and something small fell outta it. "Huh, whazzat?" Goku wondered, grabbing and looking at it. It was black, square shaped and was a little too big to fit into just one of his hands. It had a long stick thing coming outta the upper right side of it and a big, red, soft looking circle in the middle, it was kinda sticking out too.

"I wonder what it does," He looked at the red circle, and tried figuring out if the boss would get mad if he pressed it or not. "Maybe, just once,..."

With a finger sticking out, Goku carefully pressed on the soft, red circle then pushed it back into the square. Somewhere, he heard a loud rumbling sound and looked up into the sky. "It sounded like thunder, but there's no clouds in the sky,... More weird sky stuff?"

Shrugging, Goku put the red circle square back in the box and snatched Nyoibo off the ground. "Well, I guess the boss'll tell me what it does when I ask him later!"

* * *

 **A/N: For a myriad of reasons, this chapter was a bitch to get done. Not the least of which was some college-related matters and my own writer's block. Hopefully, I managed to get something halfway decent out for you guys and won't suffer the same problems with the following one.**


	9. Unforeseen Consequences

"...You're gonna use my Nevermore trap card, aren't you?"

"...What?"

"Yeah, that's what you're gonna do."

"... No, it's not..."

"Right, that's totally not the card you just used Resourceful Raider to dig out from my discard deck and TOTALLY not what you're gonna use to try and cut my air fleet in half so you can finish off the rest with Vacuo's bonus or to cover your army in-case the trap backfires."

"What?! That's crazy!"

"It's not crazy! That's what you do every time you play! You hunker down in that desert crap hole like a little bitch and mess up anyone who tries going after you!"

"At least I don't waste my armies attacking everyone like a moron!"

"No, you just sit there with your thumb shoved up your-"

With a smoke-filled sigh, Mutt put out his cigar and walked away from the table, rolling his eyes at yet another argument between the guys about the right strategy to win a board game. For children. Which was pretty fitting given how everyone started acting like them whenever they played it. Particularly Bai, the guy who first suggested playing it after Kiss the Gun went a little too far that one time.

Still, he had to give em credit for not killing each other so far, the boss' warning must've worked like a charm. They just bitched and moaned, instead. Usually, that'd be pretty funny to him but Mutt didn't feel like laughing much these days since he got back. What happened to Goku and his talk about it with the boss were always going through his head no matter what he did.

 _It's not like I didn't have good reason to bail on im._ Mutt told himself, walking up the staircase out of the basement. Their fight was wrecking the whole place, knocking down trees and sending waves all the damn place. That giant rock hitting the side of the boat and almost sinking it was the last straw, it was either stay and die or get out and finish the job.

 _Except it wasn't the only choice I had._ The bombs and the detonator were right there, he could've planned something out, made the Geist eat the bomb before blowing it all up, getting them both out of there. _Except_ _ **then**_ _the boss would've gut me like a fish for ruining part of his investment,..._

He practically said as much during their meeting just before they left, after Goku went asleep. "The time and money poured into this endeavor cannot be understated, it is of paramount importance that you return what belongs to me in-tact, no matter what it takes, am I understood?"

"Even if takes losing the kid?" Mutt asked, surprising himself at the time and even the boss, by the way his eyebrow went up.

"Even Goku." The boss answered the same way Mutt would if someone asked you what time it was on the street, and in a lot of ways, it made sense when he thought about it. Goku might've been useful for a while, but the kid was a good guy at heart and even dumb like he was, he would've figured out what they were really about sooner or later and would've gone after them. It was better if he just died before becoming a problem.

Still, not for the first time, Mutt didn't feel entirely right about it as he walked through the back of the noodle restaurant for some fresh air. Saying a couple of "Heys!" with some guys guarding it outside. For all the sense it made to get rid of Goku early, the kid still saved his life and not to kiss up to the boss by saving his loyal dog or something like these guys outside would do, if they didn't shoot him in the back first, but because he wanted to help him out.

For the first time in a long time, Mutt didn't feel entirely right about following the boss' orders to a tee. Sighing again, Mutt closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath of night time air, hoping it and the noise of the town around him would drown out all this guilt for a little while, at least.

 **BBBOOOMMM!**

He'd experienced enough Dust explosions to recognize one when it happened, but this one might've been the worst he'd ever seen. But that's not what made Mutt's blood freeze, not the shouting and panic already setting in all over the place, not the fact the ground actually shook from it or the fact there was a giant fireball shooting dozens of feet into the air. No, it was the fact the boss and his whole mansion were where that giant fireball was coming from.

He stood there, gaping at it even though giant chunks of the house were flying all over the place, crashing into nearby rooftops and the streets, one of burned brick even smashing into a car a block away from him and setting the forest around on fire. His brain didn't work right for what felt like a while, until it started to put two and two together, figuring out why the boss and everything he built had just gotten blown up and who possibly could've done it.

Remembering the fact he didn't see Goku actually die, and that he lost the detonator box when the rock smashed into the boat's side, Mutt's gaping mouth thinned into a single line and his fists clenched so tight he could actually hear his knuckles snap.

"That little son of a-" Then a flying piece of burnt wood hit him across the face and knocked Mutt out.

* * *

"Woah! Whazzat big light?" Goku wondered when he first saw something super shiny in the direction of boss' home. He smelled smoke too, lots of it from a fire. "Ooh! I wonder if its a big dinner fire!"

Spit started filling his mouth like crazy, and just imagining tons of food cooked on a big fire made him start running. "Man, I hope there's bears and wolves and tigers and all sortsa big juicy meat there!"

The fire was

Seeing the big, burning hole in the ground where the boss' house was stopped Goku like a punch to the face. Everything was gone, the walls, the sliding door, the dining room, the gym, the room he and Grampa slept in, the boss too? Mutt?

Feeling tears in the corners of his eyes, Goku ran to the big fire where he saw lots and lots of people around it and the burning forest close by. They had these big, red cars parked and were shooting water outta these snake looking things. They weren't the only ones there, Goku saw more, meaner looking people standing around with those long guns Mutt lost back in the swamp.

"Stop right there, kid!" One of them shouted at him with, stepping in front of where Goku wanted to run through. "What are you doing out here? This isn't a place to-"

"What happened? Why's there a big fire here?! Where's boss?! Or Mutt?!"

"Boss?" The guy with the gun said again. "You're one of Xiong's runts?"

Goku ignored the mean sounding word, even if it made him a little mad. "Yeah! I know the boss! Where is he? Why's his house gone?!"

"Kid, Xiong's dead, his house blew up a few minutes ago and everyone in it."

"D-dead,..." He repeated, feeling the anger from the mean name gun guy called him going away. He felt something else he hadn't since the night everything went weird when he found Grampa changed into a four-star ball: sad. He didn't like it, how his nose started making some weird, green goop or how his eyes started getting all watery. The worst part was he didn't have anyone to get mad at, not like when Grampa changed again into a rock and he could beat up the Grimm,...

 _He's gone,..._ Goku thought, sniffing his nose and letting a few tears drop. _My friends gone..._

"I wouldn't cry over him kid," The Gun Guy said, spitting on the ground. "Xiong was scum, you ask me, he did this whole town a favor by dropping dead already."

Goku felt like he got punched again when he heard that, not just because the jerk called him and his friend, boss, mean sounding things, but because he sounded **happy** that boss was dead! Suddenly, his nose wasn't bugging him anymore and his tears almost dried up, he wasn't just sad anymore, but a little sad and really angry too!

With the meanest look, he could give the Gun Guy, Goku's fist went in the guys gut and got him in his knees in no time. Before he could try getting back up, Goku growled and kicked him in the face, sending him flying all the way to one of those big, red cars closeby and knocking him into it. The thud was so loud even with the noise of other people shouting stuff at each other and all the water and fire around that a lot of those people just stopped when they heard it, staring at Gun Guy on the ground and Goku staring at him.

"Don't talk about my friend like that you mean jerk or I'll smash you some more!" Goku shouted, then looked around at the people staring at him. "That goes for you too!"

He heard some clicking noises to his right and left and saw more guys pointing guns at him. If he thought that'd scare him, they were in for a big surprise! "You wanna get beat up like that jerk too? Fine!" Goku's hand went for Nyoibo and he stepped towards the closest other Gun Guy to his right. "You're gonna-"

A whole lot of snarling sounds louder than all the noise stopped him and everyone else there. Goku knew what they came from before he even picked up their smell apart from the fire, the forest and everything there. How couldn't he know? They were the first of the monsters he fought!

"The bear Grimm!" He shouted, pointing to the north behind the fire. "They're comin' from that-a-way!"

Nobody moved, but when Goku heard another sound, a person screaming from that direction, he did and way faster than everyone else too. "Extend!" He shouted to Nyoibo, smashing him into the ground and letting him grow big enough to vault over the fire where boss' house used to be. Going through the smoke made his nose go nuts and he had to smack himself on the head a few times when he landed to feel better but he didn't stop, not when the persons screaming and the monster snarls kept going on and definitely when some of those Gun Guys kept shouting at him to stop too!

The forest was worse than he thought with lotsa trees burning all over the place, making him take a second to figure out how to jump over or duck through the whole mess before he could keep going. It didn't help the smoke kept making his nose feel like it was on fire too! The scream started again with a "Help! Help me!" coming after it.

Ducking under a falling, burning tree, Goku finally got to where the screams were coming from, an old man who looked kinda familiar backing up against a tree and throwing rocks, twigs and anything he could grab off the ground at the bear Grimm.

"Hey! Monster!" Goku shouted, tossing a rock in the Grimm's butthole! It snarled real loud and jerked left and right before turning around at him. "Yeah! I did that! What're you gonna do about it, huh?!"

It did pretty much what he thought: went straight at him. Goku stood there, putting one leg way behind the other along with both his arms holding Nyoibo and kept a good eye on how its head kept bobbing up and down. When he got the timing of it down, with another shout, Goku jabbed Nyoibo like a spear and told it: "Extend!"

Mid-jab, it did just that, smashing right into the Grimm's mouth and going outside the other end of its head! "Gotcha!" He said, smirking and pulling Nyoibo out.

"A-amazing!" The familiar looking old man said, laughing a little. With the Grimm gone, Goku got an even better look at him and coulda swore he'd seen the guy before, he'd recognize how weird a head so bald on top but super big, spiky and grey on the back anywhere. "I-I suppose this is gratitude for the chopsticks?"

"Chopsticks?" Goku repeated until he finally remembered, from the first night he came to town! "Oh! You're the guy from the noodle place!"

"That I am," The old man laughed again, walking over to him. "Though I fear my job there almost got me killed if not for you."

"Yeah what're you doin' out here with a forest fire goin' on?"

"F-forest fire? So, that's what all that smoke was about,..."

"Yeah, the guys with guns there said the boss' house,... blew up,... I guess that means a big fire went up,..." Goku's voice went a little quieter then, all this craziness got him to forget the boss and maybe even Mutt being gone.

"... I think," The old guy said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We should get to safety first, if there's a forest fire, I imagine we'll have more Grimm arriving soon."

Something about the nice way he said it, his voice softening up, reminded Goku of Grampa back when things were a lot less weird. The small way he smiled helped too, even if the old guy's eyes stayed closed for some reason.

"Yeah, we should, I hear more of em coming! Quick," He turned his back to the old man. "Hop on! I'll give you lift!"

"A-are you sure you'll manage?"

"Oh yeah, I gave my Grampa piggy back rides all the time for trainin'! Used to carry big boulders too!"

The old man didn't give him a funny look, just raised his eyebrow and laughed before hopping on. "You are certainly an interesting young man," then he laughed again. "You've saved my life and I don't even know your name!"

"It's Son Goku, mister...?"

"Nariyoshi, proud owner of A Simple Wok!"

* * *

 **A/N: After a month of doing this fic on both and both Spacebattles, I am very pleased to announce the passing of an important milestone in terms of readership. As a proud, Saiyan Prince once said: "Over... 8000..." Thank you one and all for that! Also, I would like to thank fellow** Spacebattler **TimEd for story contributions on this chapter and the following one as well!**


	10. Cleaning Up a Mess

"Man, it wasn't on fire so much when I was comin' over here!" Goku shouted to Nariyoshi, jumping to the side from a falling, burning tree. Just one of a whole lot going right ahead of them going all the way back to where he came in from, he guessed. With all of it so smokey and shiny, it was kinda hard to tell but one thing was for sure, all of it bugged his nose even more and his eyes were starting to get super watery.

Nariyoshi wasn't taking it good either, from over Goku's head, he started coughing real loud like he was trying to get something big a nasty stuck in there out of it. "You okay, pops?"

"Y-yes!" He coughed again, looking kinda weird. "Just... been a while since I was in the middle of something so... exciting!"

Another tree went down with a loud crashing noise in front of them but it wasn't the loudest thing Goku heard, that'd be the Grimm snarling from behind a ways off. The monsters were gonna get to where they were real soon if he didn't do something. Well, Nyoibo helped him out the last time he needed to get someplace so why not again!

"Couldja grab my neck? I need my hands free."

"O-Of course!"

With his hands-free, Goku took Nyoibo out and went back a little for a bigger running start. "Hold on old pops! This is gonna get wild!"

Before Nariyoshi could ask what he meant, Goku was already blasting off back to the dropped trees. "Nyoibo!" He shouted, bringing it up for a thrust. "EXTEND!"

Smashing it into the ground right before the trees, they both went up and up, rising even over the tall trees for a little while. Thanks to the speed he built up, they were able to go over a lot of the burning forest but Goku could tell it wouldn't be enough. They'd have to jump a few more times to get back out.

"Keep holdin' tight pops! I'll get us out!" Goku shouted to Nariyoshi over his screaming. With a loud thud, they landed to an even more messed up part of the forest but blasted off again once Goku got another running start. They went like this for a while, even with things burning more and more the closer they got to where Goku went into the forest through. From what he could tell, lots of Grimm were already getting to the town and whoever was busy tossing water outside boss' house was gone.

That's when Goku heard something shout from the sky. It wasn't like the others already there or from any Grimm he'd heard before. The sound was sort of shrill, making his ears hurt. What followed it was flapping noises, the kind from what sounded like a big bird. At the top of their last big jump out of the forest, the noises got suddenly louder and Goku swore he felt the wind snap behind him.

With a whole lot of power, the Grimm making this racket blew right past them close enough to not only freak both of them out but to accidentally smack into Nyoibo. The staff shook so much it was impossible for Goku not to lose his grip and pretty soon they were all falling pretty high off the ground.

For a second in mid-air, Goku let himself stare at the biggest Grimm he'd ever seen. It looked like a bird but so ginormous its wings looked like they could cover up the entire town it was busy going after. With its big clawed feet, the monster flew down to then ripped off the roof of a big house!

But he had way bigger problems than a giant, evil bird. He had to save the old man who definitely wouldn't survive falling from that distance. Remembering another one of Grampa's lessons about taking a fall, Goku curled himself up into a ball, making him smaller and letting him fall first. The second he hit the ground, he started running to where Nariyoshi was falling and shouted, using all his strength to jump across the air and grab him. Then he spun around, landing back down with Nariyoshi being held overhead.

"Phew! That was close, you alright pops?"

"Y-Yes, quite... alright..." Nariyoshi answered through the banging of his teeth. Goku heard Nyoibo smack down nearby but getting to him was gonna take some more fancy moves: the Grimm were looking their way. No wasting a second, Goku grit his teeth and went for his staff and sure enough, one of this big bear Grimm came for him.

"Why are you-" The old man tried shouting but Goku just kept running right at the mean looking monster in-front of them. Timing his jump right, he managed to dodge the claw swipe and use the bear Grimm's head to bounce off closer to Nyoibo.

Doing the same thing to a couple more Grimm, Goku grinned when his tail finally snatched the staff off the grass and bounced it back to his hand. Nariyoshi was back putting his arms around Goku's neck.

"I'm gunna get you someplace safe so I can go fight, alright?" With another running starting, Goku extended Nyoibo and went back to jumping long distances to the town. The bird Grimm was too busy going after people there to knock him down, thankfully.

"T-There's a basement under my restaurant! B-But if the Grimm overrun the city..."

"Aw don't worry! I'll beat em up good!"

After lots more jumping around, they finally stopped on the roof of a small house on the edge of town. Lots of people were running around, shouting and either running away or trying to fight the Grimm. So much of the place was on fire too with a ton of busted buildings everywhere.

"Where's yer place?"

"That way." Nariyoshi shakily pointed to just the place the big bird Grimm was circling around, where lots of fire was popping up around it.

"Okay! Hang on a little longer, kay?" With another jump, Goku got back to ground level. He didn't think hopping around the roofs was a good idea with the bird monster around. Instead, he jumped around those car things, big and small ones, around there to keep them both from the running people and Grimm down there.

On the way to the restaurant, he'd sometimes whack one of the monsters with Nyoibo when they were gonna nab someone. Even if it got them both into some trouble. By the time they got to the restaurant, the birds yelling was getting bad enough to hurt Goku's ears. That was when he heard a familiar voice too, screaming at other people.

"We need more ammo! Where the hells the Dust?!"

Goku was surprised in a good way when he figured out who it was. "HEY! BIG BALD!"

Standing outside the old man's place with a few of his bodies with those gun things, was the mean guy he met the same night as the boss. His black suit was gone, so was the rope or tie they put around their necks. Goku even spotted a little bit of blood on the side of his hairless head.

For a second, Big Bald stopped and just looked at him with that same, huge eye bulging look. "Y-You! You're alive?!"

"Yup!" Goku smiled then went to the door, letting Nariyoshi climb off. "Don't go outside till we beat em."

"Y-Yes! Thank you! A-And be careful!" The old man told him then rushed inside. Big Bald's guys kept firing on the bird Grimm circling around this chunk of town but it must not have been doing much. It looked like it was ignoring them.

"Kid! Mutt said you can take these things on! Please tell me he wasn't talking crap."

"Huh? Mutt's here?!" Goku asked, feeling hopeful that one of his friends didn't go boom like the boss did.

"He's sleeping inside! Now forget about im and help us! If we don't kill that Nevermore this whole town's screwed!"

"Alright! Leave em t'me!" Taking what must've been his millionth running start for a jump that night, Goku stabbed Nyoibo in the ground them told him to extend. In a quick burst of speed, his staff did its job good, getting him way, way up there around the spot Bird Grimm was flying around.

Then, Goku climbed to the top of Nyoibo with one foot while his tail wrapped itself around the staff. He stood there, being able to see the whole town right from under him. But it wasn't shiny and pretty like before. Now the monsters were there, and everyone was really scared.

Bird Grimm shouted again and this time, it got close enough for him to make the jump. With a shout, Goku told Nyoibo to shrink back to normal, feeling the staff whip against his tail when he made a grab for the monsters wing. He made it!

With every bit of strength he had, Goku grabbed onto the thing tight but boy was it not easy for him. The monster kept flapping it up and down, making it super tough. It didn't help the wind was strong too. Stronger than he ever thought it could get. It took all his own hand and arm strength just to hold on.

He was hoping to get closer to the mouth, use the same trick on the Bird Grimm like he did with those croc ones in the swamp. But something told him there was no way he'd get there without somehow being smashed or blown off so he'd have to it on the monsters wing.

Thankfully, his tail gave him basically a third arm. Slowly, Goku made it edge closer and closer to his right hand while his mouth opened up. First, he bit down on the monsters wing, hard as he could and trying to ignore the horrible taste it had. Bad enough to make him want to never eat again!

But it got the job done, it let him stay attached long enough to slip Nyoibo from his tail into his right hand. Then, with all the power he had in there, Goku let out a muffled shout and stabbed as hard as he could into the wing. The first hit didn't go far, even if the Grimm started yelling again. So he went again, and again, and again until the tough hide started letting up.

By the time he got to dent through it enough, both his hands and especially his jaw was really sore. Enough for them to feel numb. Ignoring this, Goku jammed Nyoibo into the dent as far as he could then prepared himself. Because when his teeth finally let go to give the order, he knew he was gonna get sent flying.

"EXTEND!" He shouted and Nyoibo did just that. With the same rushing burst, Grampa's gift to him went right through the monsters left wing. With nothing but the staff left to keep him up there, he focused his grip on it and practically heard the snapping of meat as the wind blew him and Nyoibo back. Which worked out just fine, this let them cut the monsters wing right off at the midway point.

With a shriek louder than any he'd ever heard before, the Bird Grimm went down and not in the city too. It crashed right where he and Nariyoshi came into town through where lots and lots of other Grimm was trying to get in too. Goku wasn't sure from so far away but he knew when that big thing fell, it must've squashed tons of its smaller buddies right from under it.

That got a satisfied smile out of him but his joy didn't last long. The last gust of wind that blew him back and let him down the monster took Nyoibo right out of his hands. The numbness of his hands was obviously much worse than he thought up there at the moment. Because when he tried to make them grab Nyoibo to soften the fall, Goku's arms just wouldn't listen to him.

Before he could try and figure out another trick with his tail though, the rest of him when numb when he hit the side of something really hard. Then something else, and a few more things before finally landing on top of one of those parks Big Bald and his guys had in-front of A Simple Wok.

"Uuuhhhh..." He moaned out, sort of hearing Nyoibo clank somewhere close by along with someone, maybe Big Bald, shouting his name. He'd fallen from big places before but usually, he broke his fall with something. This was a full-on splat. It was the kind of pain he couldn't even feel right then, the kind you'd feel a whole lot down the line.

A pair of big arms took him off the car, it was Big Bald, he was mostly sure. It was sort of hard to tell from his eyes feeling heavy. Pretty soon his ears went numb too, making whatever he was saying a whole lot of muffled noise. When Goku's eyes finally closed, he wouldn't see, feel or hear anything for a while.

* * *

 **A/N: Guess who's back? Next time, we'll get to the epilogue of the first arc!**


	11. The Offer

When Goku woke up this time, there was an annoying beeping noise next to his left ear. Mumbling something, he tried swinging at whatever was making it without hurting himself this time. No matter which way his arm went, the beeping wouldn't stop. If anything, it beeped faster the angrier he got!

"C-Cut it out..." He mumbled again, louder this time. There was a sharp pain somewhere in the back of his head and sleeping it off always worked to fix that. The more time passed, though, Goku was convinced that wouldn't happen. Didn't help he still tasted Grimm in his mouth.

So he decided to wake up, yawning and rubbing his eyes open. The bed and pillow weren't anywhere close as comfy as the boss' ones. It was really white too. Floor, ceiling, curtains, making honestly weird to look at. There was a window too and through it, Goku could see the town.

Before he could hop out his bed though, something itchy on his chest bothered him. Pulling the big cover off, Goku noticed his clothes were missing! Instead of the gi, there was a big shirt going all the way to his knees. No pants either.

"Aw man? Who took my clothes?!" Goku grumbled, spotting some weird blue thing with a wire sticking on his chest. He ripped it off and the beeping noise changed to a buzzing one. Ignoring it, he jumped out of the bed, taking a few steps to see if everything was all there. "Guess its just my head hurtin'."

A trip around the room to find his clothes and more importantly, Nyoibo and Grampa came next. It didn't take long, a short walk from his bed was a tiny closet where someone put his stuff in. With a big relief, Goku opened up the pouch and found Grampa inside, looking fine. Not even the fall dented or broke him a bit!

"Phew! I was worried there fer a second!"

"Lad! What are you doing out of bed?" A familiar voice shouted from behind. Turning around to the doorway, Goku smiled when he saw the Doc who helped Mutt standing there.

"Heya Doc!" He waved at the man walking up to him, he looked kinda mad.

"Lad, you took a horrible fall! You shouldn't be out of bed!"

"I was tryin' t'sleep but that annoying thing kept bugging me." Goku pointed at the thing where the wire hooked to his chest used to be. "It's still annoying me now."

Doc sighed and took off some funny looking things around his eyes to rub them. "Goku, that thing is there to help me see if your heart is alright! When it flatlined I rushed over here to stop you from dying!"

"Ooohhhhh..." Goku said rubbing the back of his head. "So that's what its for..."

"Yes, now please, come back to bed," With Doc's hand on his back, Goku went back to the bed with Doc adjusting the thing watching his heart. "There, now, don't remove it until I say, alright?"

"Sure thing!"

"Good, we've still got some tests to run, once we know for sure you're alright, we'll be able to let you go."

"Do I hafta? I feel pretty okay! Except my head bein' a little sore."

"Yes you do," Doc said with the same kind of voice Grampa did when he wanted Goku to listen. "Though you appear fine from the examinations we've taken, I want to keep you at least until tomorrow to be absolutely sure you're alright. Unexpected complications with health aren't uncommon."

"How long have I been here?"

"A little over a day and a half, Nariyoshi and Bai both brought you here after the fall."

"Big Bald help me out too?" Goku's eyes widened. "Where is he? An pops?"

"Uhh..." Doc looked kinda nervous. "Bai... had to leave town. Nariyoshi visited you yesterday, he was pretty worried about you hadn't woken up yet."

"Well, I do sleep tight," Goku laughed, rubbing the back of his head again. "Wait, you said lotsa folks would be mad if I got hurt? But I don't know that many people."

Doc's face relaxed when he smiled. "True but a lot of people owe you their lives. Your help in bringing down the Nevermore bought us a lot of time to save the town. You've become sort of a... celebrity around here."

"What's a celebity?"

"Famous, someone everyone knows about."

"Oohhh..."

Something buzzed from inside Doc's big white shirt. His smile was gone when he looked at a small, black box outta his pocket. "Listen Goku I need to check on another patient. Stay put and I'll make sure someone contacts Nariyoshi that you've woken up, alright?"

"Sure! And can I get something t'eat? I'm real hungry and I can still taste Grimm in my mouth."

Doc stopped to look at him with another one of those funny looks before nodding and rushing out the door. A while later, someone else showed up, it was a girl wearing blue pants and a long shirt. More important was her bringing food. It was on one of those tray things the boss' people around the house had. After thanking her, Goku couldn't wait to chow down.

It was awful. Something that might've been a chicken was there with bits of other meat and fruit. If anyone asked Goku what the worst food he'd eaten was, this would win. But it was the kind of bad food that got the horrible taste of Grimm out of his mouth so he couldn't complain too much.

After the nurse came back to take the tray away, Goku got bored fast. Doc told him not to leave his bed and he didn't want to make him mad. Would push-ups on the bed count as still being on it? Or would he have to cover himself up first then start? But then he figured, what if the wire thing fell off and Doc got scared he died again?

While he wondered about this, there was a knock on the door before it whooshed open. Goku couldn't help grinning like an idiot when he saw who it was.

"POPS! You're here!" He almost jumped out before remembering to stay put.

Nariyoshi smiled, holding a big bowl of noodles in his hand. Suddenly, Goku was hungry all over again. "Of course. I couldn't well let my savior stay bored here or hungry."

His hands were on the bowl the second it got close enough and boy did the smell of them feel great when he peeled off some shiny stuff off the top. "Mmmmm, thanks!"

"He's got quite the appetite," A new voice said from behind the old man and just before he could chow down, Goku noticed somebody coming in with him.

He was a tall guy, not as big as Big Bald but tall anyway. Leaner. He had a white shirt with sleeves going to his elbows and black pants. Some red thing was hanging off his back. His hair was black and spiky but not as long as Goku's. There was some shiny stuff around his fingers and neck. Besides him smelling like some gross stuff Grampa used to drink, the biggest thing Goku noticed about him was a big, sharp looking knife hanging on the back of his waist.

"Yes he does," Nariyoshi laughed. "Goku, this is Qrow Branwen, one of the Huntsmen who arrived to save the city from the Grimm."

"Hiya! I'm Son Goku!" He said through a mouth full of noodles. Then he remembered that might be rude but this Qrow guy didn't seem to mind.

"I know, I've heard a lot of stories about you. From mister Wok here and around town. You've gotten pretty famous."

"Yeah," Goku answered with another mouthful before swallowing it down. "Doc told me that too. Are the monsters all gone now? What happened to the big bird one?"

"Bird went down after you cut off its wing. Good thing you did too, took out a lot of em and bought us time to save this place."

"That's good, I saw what those monsters do t'folks. They're real jerks."

Qrow chuckled a little before looking around the room. "I also heard about how you did it too. A staff right, that can grow long?"

"Yup! It's called Nyoibo, it's a gift from my Grampa! He gave it t'me before he died!"

"You mind if I see it? It sounds like a pretty cool piece of work."

"Oh yeah! It's the best! It's right there in that closet, next to my Grampa!"

Qrow almost gave him a funny look then walked over to Goku's stuff. When he took Nyoibo in his hand, Goku noticed how funny it looked in the hands of someone a whole lot bigger than him. The Huntsmen looked it over, carefully handling it.

"How do you make it grow longer?"

"Oh that's easy, I just shout EXTEND!"

Suddenly, the staff did that rushing over to the wall where the door was and smashing right into it. There was a big dent there now. Qrow and Nariyoshi stared at it while Goku laughed a little awkwardly. "Uuhhh, oops?"

"Oh dear," Nariyoshi shook his head, looking kind of sad. "I'll speak to the doctor about fixing this."

"Don't worry about mister Wok, I'll handle that. I'm the one who poked around with it anyway," Qrow pulled it out, looking it over again real careful. "How do you make it shrink?"

"I shout retract."

Nyoibo went back to normal. For the third time, Qrow looked it over, then hummed something. "You said your Grampa got you this? What was his name?"

"Son Gohan, he was a big deal martial artist back in his day. Least, that's what he told me."

Qrow nodded then put Nyoibo back in the closet with the rest of the things. "That's a pretty sweet piece of weaponry you got there, kid. And you clearly know how to use it, I'm guessing your Grampa taught you that too."

"Mhm," Goku answered through another mouthful of noodles.

"But did he teach you about Aura? Or Semblances?"

He stopped to think about it for a sick, swallowing the noodles before answering. "No, but I heard about Huntsmen havin' powers and stuff. It sounds pretty cool, do you have one?"

Qrow's smile but a little crookedly. "Sure, I got it. So does everyone who learns how to fight Grimm for real. In fact, I'm a teacher myself."

Goku's eyes widened. "Woah! Really?" Qrow nodded. "So can you teach me how ta fight em better? I've killed lots already but they're tough."

This time the Huntsmen's smile didn't look crooked. "That's the reason I came here, actually. I haven't seen you in action myself but a guy like you doesn't make a reputation over nothing. With a few more years of training, I think you could go places, kid. Maybe one day be as good as me."

"So yer like one of the best?"

"Well, not to toot my own horn, but yeah, I am."

"Awesome!" Goku finished the bowl and put it down on the bed. "When can we start?"

"Slow down, Son," Nariyoshi said from his right, gently putting him back down. "You've still got to rest from your fall and mister Branwen has more to say about this offer."

"Mister Wok is right. You wouldn't be able to stay here for one, the place where you'd train would be a ways off but I got some friends who're willing to help you out there. You've also got to sort out some paperwork. Officially, you don't exist kid."

"Huh?" Goku poked his own belly. "But I feel like I do..."

That got a laugh out of both of them, but not the mean kind. "He means you need to sort out some papers so people can know how old you are or if you have any illness or condition they should know about."

"Ohhh... How do I make that?"

"Like I said, I've got people to sort that out. You'll need a guardian too, since you don't have any other family I'm guessing you'll have to live with someone who'll take care of you."

"Aw you don't need t'do that! I've been livin' by myself for a while now! Eating, hunting, sleeping! Grampa made sure I could fend for myself."

"I'm glad he did, it'll make a lot of your training later a lot easier, believe me. But the rules say you need a grown-up looking after you and I can't bend them for anyone," Qrow smiled a little, but not at Goku, at Nariyoshi. "Luckily, I think you've got someone interested."

Goku blinked then look at pops. "You wanna be my grown up?"

"I know we aren't well acquainted but the place mister Branwen here is talking about is where I happen to be going. For a fresh start to get away from," He looked a little sour all of a sudden. "This city and some of the people here. I'd need your help around the restaurant I'm planning to open from time to time though."

"You sure? I might just eat the whole place!" Goku joked getting another laugh out of both of them. But his was the first to die down. He remembered something. "But... I don't know if I can... My house is out there and I wanna go back, somebody promised t'help me but they're gone..."

"We can figure that out too," Qrow said like it was the easiest thing in the world. It reminded Goku of boss. "Who says you can't stay with mister Wok for a while? When we figure out where your home is and you're grown up, you can go there and do what you want."

Goku stopped to think about that. It made sense. It was what the boss basically promised him too. And this way, he could eat lots of noodles and learn how to fight better. Maybe even get to fight Qrow too...

"What do I hafta do?"

* * *

 **Kuchinashi General Hospital Roof**

Qrow took a while inspecting the top of the building, making sure no one was within earshot. He needed privacy for this conversation. The midday breeze was pleasant enough for him, even if there was still the stench of smoke in the air.

Kuchinashi, which he could see all around him from up the four-story building, was a mess. Homes and business' wrecked, people from every class of life killed and the local underworld practically annihilated in a single explosion that set the whole damn mess off.

Not that Mistral's government would care about that last part. If anything, this and Kuroyuri being attacked by Grimm so close to one another would probably get some bureaucrats moving up in the world. Once word got out about Kuroyuri, Mistral put itself on high alert on the possibility one of their own cities would get attacked. It was what let them respond so quickly and prevent another disaster from happening.

Below him, Qrow could see plenty of troops from the army moving around, helping to keep the order or clean the mess up. Hei Xiong must've been rolling in his fiery grave if he could see it. His own turf was about to become more closely tied to the central government than ever before now. For an ex-guerilla turned mob boss, there was no bigger insult.

And if it was true Atlas' stolen bombs were behind Xiong blowing him whole operation here up was true. As some preliminary reports between the Mistral and Atlas armies were speculating it might be from what they found in the wreckage, his sister and son were in for a bad time too. Jacques Schnee wouldn't let that humiliation lie down.

But there was other stuff to worry about first. Like reporting to Ozpin back at Beacon. Taking his Scroll out, Qrow activated a special microdevice planted inside, connecting it to a subnetwork away from the public CCTS setup years ago for talks just like this one.

In a few seconds, Qrow saw his boss' face on the monitor. "How ya doing Oz?"

"Peaceful as usual, Qrow," Ozpin answered in his usual, formal tone. "I assume you've spoken to the boy. Initial thoughts?"

"Kids as dumb as a bag of bricks and a little weird too. But, he's got a good heart," Qrow couldn't help but smile. "Reminds me of someone I know back home."

"I take it he's interested in our offer?"

"He likes fighting, his eyes practically popped out of his head when I told him he could do it even better. Nariyoshi wants to be his guardian too, kid doesn't mind that either."

Ozpin nodded, then frowned, his voice dropping a little. "And... the staff?"

Qrow's own smile vanished too. "It's magic. No doubt about it. I looked it over three times and saw how it works with my own eyes. There're no mechanisms like an ordinary weapon, no Dust either. So, unless I'm crazier or drunker than I've ever been before, its one hundred percent magic."

If it was possible, the headmaster managed to look even grimmer. "I'll need to inspect it for myself. Magic items do not simply appear, as you know. Certainly not like this."

"Wok's moving his operations in a few weeks. I've already told im we'll help out on that end, you can meet with Goku then. In the meantime, I'll stick around, see what else I can find out and... make sure nobody else gets any wise-ass ideas about the kid."

"Have you seen anyone who might be?"

"No," Qrow admitted, reaching for the flask in his other pocket. "But from what I heard, the kid already got mixed up with Hei Xiong's crew a few days before it all went boom. He's got the cunning of a rock and I don't think it's smart to leave em alone. Not until he's in Mistral itself where Leo can keep an eye on him for us."

"A wise decision," Ozpin said a little dryly when Qrow to a few mouthfuls of whiskey. Them his old grimness was back. "Stay sharp Qrow, if what you've told me is true, Son Goku may find himself embroiled in matters beyond his understanding."

"Wouldn't be the first guy to be in that position."

* * *

 **A/N: And that's it! The end of the first "arc" of the story! I'm not gonna lie, with me new rewrite of Dragon Ball Super Broly and college starting soon, I won't have much time for this fic. But I wanted to finish this at the very least for myself and for you guys!**

 **I hope you enjoyed the ride so far and whenever I get back to it! And if you feel a little sad, check out some of my other work to hold you over.**


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